The film deals with the harsh realities of village life and the problems of landholding The film, in an almost documentary style.
Social & External
Unknown Role
In a small farming valley in Austria in the beginning of the 20th century a tyrannical farmer is found dead, and all the farmhands are relieved to be free of their tyrant. But the farmer was childless, so suddenly they all inherit the farm together. Now conflicts begin, as nobody is the boss and nobody has to obey.
Set in the South just after the US Civil War, Laurel Sommersby is just managing to work the farm without her husband, believed killed in battle. By all accounts, Jack Sommersby was not a pleasant man, thus when he suddenly returns, Laurel has mixed emotions. It appears that Jack has changed a great deal, leading some people to believe that this is not actually Jack but an imposter. Laurel herself is unsure, but willing to take the man into her home, and perhaps later into her heart.
War journalist Paul Prior returns to his New Zealand hometown after his father’s death, rekindling strained relationships with his brother and memories of a troubled past. He befriends Celia, a curious and aspiring writer, who shares a fascination with his world. When Celia mysteriously disappears, Paul becomes the prime suspect, forcing him to confront buried secrets and uncover the dark truths of his family and community.
An average, everyday metalworker and volunteer firefighter content in his marriage to his childhood sweetheart finds his emotions unexpectedly stirred when he falls for a pretty waitress from a nearby town.
After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.
In the beginning of the 19th century, Johannes Elias Alder is born in a small village in the Austrian mountains. While growing up he is considered strange by the other villagers and discovers his love of music, especially rebuilding and playing the organ at the village church. After experiencing an "acoustic wonder", his eye color changes and he can hear even the most subtle sounds.
Johan and his family are Mennonites from the north of Mexico. Against the law of God and Man, Johan falls in love with another woman.
An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don't go as expected.
In May of 1983, a man turns 49 and, with his 17-year old son, journeys to the village in Baden that he left 40 years before. He wants to discover what happened then, the truth about an affair his mother had with a young Polish prisoner of war, how the authorities came to learn of it, the lovers' arrest, and the aftermath. While his son takes Polaroid photographs, he retraces the steps of his childhood and interviews those who should remember. The story is disclosed in flashbacks that focus on the lovers (Paulina and Stanislaus), on a jealous and conniving neighbor, and on Mayer, the local SS commander who wants to find a way out of inevitable consequences.
In the main square of the town of Avila, everybody is celebrating the feast of Saint Eurosia, protector of earth's harvest. But something is happening in the village bar...
A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.
Pajo is a hardworking, lonely but also very rich farmer. His son Toma was, however, bored with country life and tried to seek fortune in the city. Short on money, Toma returns to the farm for a handout while Pajo tries to convince him to stay.
The unborn child of Mamlakat is telling her story. She is 17, beautiful and vivacious, and dreaming secretly of becoming an actress. She lives with her father and brother in a small village in Central Asia. One night she is seduced by an actor from a travelling troupe, who poses as a friend of Tom Cruise, and gets her pregnant. She tries to abort, but her father and brother become determined to find the seducer, setting in motion a cascade of comic adventures.
60 year old woman leaves urban life and goes to live in a village to take care of her grandchildren whose parents now live in America. There she faces lots of financial hardships as the family doesn't send any money, and tries her best to provide all for their happier childhood.
A poetic story about the first love of the village girl Natasha, loyal to the memory of the deceased fiancé. In peacetime, the heroine's fiancé blew up on a land mine that remained on the collective farm field since the war, and her life turned into a nightmare. But sooner or later, dreams end and the world opens again. Pregnant Natasha goes to the institutions, seeking to be signed with the father of the unborn child who died tragically. At the end, after long ordeals, she comes to the conclusion that writing in the marriage book will not change anything in her life.
An apparently happy wife in an English village has a relationship with a local aristocrat's daughter.
Based on short stories by Vasiliy Shukshin. About the life and people of the modern Soviet village. Old Yermolai lived all his life in one village. He has four sons, each with their own problems. The youngest foolishly ended up in jail and, three months before his release, greatly missing his family, escaped.
When an injured wife-murderer takes refuge on a remote Lancashire farm, the farmer’s three children mistakenly believe him to be the Second Coming of Christ.
Reyhan, raised in a religious family, arrives to spend her summer holidays at her grandmother Ummu's house in a conservative central Anatolian village, accompanied by her mother Hatice, and her 6 year old brother Mehmet. The 13 year old is gripped by a state of inner turmoil. She has just had her first period and dreads the consequences of being unable to perform the required religious rites. Reyhan's concerns mount after she finds out the water supply at her grandmother's village house is cut off. She is desperate to find a way to perform the required religious ablution rites, which she has always been told will protect her from attacks by djinns and facial disfiguration. She starts having nightmares. At the same time, Reyhan is also determined to help Şükran, her best friend in the village.
Fleeing heartbreak in the big city, Ichiko returns to Komori, her rural hometown. She battles summer's rain and humidity, bakes her own bread, grows hothouse tomatoes and tills the fields. During autumn, the time for pickling and preserving fish and sweet potatoes, Ichiko begins reaping rice and recalls her departure five years before.
The film is a love story. However, it is not a story about the love between two people, but rather a story about the love and affection that a group of people feel for life and for each other. The film depicts all kinds of love, from east to west, from schoolchildren to villagers, from young to old, in both an emotional and humorous way.
A story in four parts is told from the perspective of two children, showing life in school, in nature, with family and at home. All of this unfolding along with the seasons. The Small Town depicts life in the village, while also portraying the relationships between members of a small-town family, in a long centerpiece scene around a campfire with family members talking about the past, life and its disappointments. Both brother and sister witness the complexities and darkness of the adult world, as well as the mysteries of nature and wildlife.
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
In the southeast region of Turkey, the Kurdish family of Altun lives in a small mountainside village plagued by a 25-year war that makes their daily lives a hellish struggle. As the war intensifies, the family is forced to migrate west to the city of Istanbul.
A high school graduate, Yusuf could not pass the university entrance exam. Writing poetry is his greatest passion and some of his poems are being printed in various obscure literary journals. But neither these poems, nor the rapidly falling price of the milk they sell, are being of any benefit to Yusuf and Zehra's lives. When Yusuf finds out about Zehra's secret affair with the town's stationmaster he gets disconcerted. Will he find the way to cope with his anxiety for the unknown future, the rapid change that he is going through and the pain of taking a step into adulthood and leaving his youth behind
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Haunted by his dark past, a man takes a job as a fire warden in a remote tower in the wilderness, and is inexorably drawn towards a young woman with a terrible secret of her own.
In the streets of Istanbul, ailing waste warehouse worker Mehmet takes a small boy under his wing and must soon confront his own traumatic childhood.
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
The three human characters are an old man, an old woman, and a young boy, who wander among the natural wonders and give the camera soulful looks.
When motocross and heavy metal obsessed, 13-year-old Jacob's delinquent behavior forces CPS to place his little brother Wes with his aunt, Jacob and his emotionally absent father must finally take responsibility for their actions and each other in order to bring Wes home.
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
An aspiring filmmaker visits his parents and begins to devise a movie. Amidst creating and casting for the film, he encounters with family & friends who struggle with their own problems, dreams and life.
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
The struggles of a migrant Anatolian family to adapt to and survive in the very different conditions of urban Istanbul. A young woman moves with her husband and small child to her husband's family in Istanbul. Her son becomes ill and the doctor tells her that he will soon die if he doesn't get an operation. The family refuses to help her because they can't see anything wrong with the boy. What happens on a Eid morning becomes a breaking point for the family.
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.