Paraíso Production

Santiago, capital of Chile during the Marxist government of elected, highly controversial president Salvador Allende. Father McEnroe supports his leftist views by introducing a program at the prestigious "collegio" (Catholic prep school) St. Patrick to allow free admission of some proletarian kids. One of them is Pedro Machuca, slum-raised son of the cleaning lady in Gonzalo Infante's liberal-bourgeois home. Yet the new classmates become buddies, paradoxically protesting together as Gonzalo gets adopted by Pedro's slum family and gang. But the adults spoil that too, not in the least when general Pinochet's coup ousts Allende, and supporters such as McEnroe.

An early 20th-century sultan is introduced to the cinematograph with the help of a former operator for the Lumiere brothers.

Every Tuesday, Claudine goes to a mountain hotel to meet men passing through. When one of them decides to extend his stay for her, Claudine’s daily life is disrupted and she finds herself dreaming of another life.

Fanny, a young nurse working at a big public hospital, is trapped every night in the same obsessive nightmare. She dreams she turns into a tree. While stuck to a lonely everyday routine she realises that her nightmare goes beyond the imaginary and gradually infiltrates her life.

A couple search for love but never quite seem to meet.

At a house party, a handsome man wanders around catching up with friends he has not seen for some years. A travel writer now based in Berlin, Andre appears to be living an exciting international life, and yet... something has drawn him back home to Santiago. As the night goes on, we realize that a tragedy binds this group - an event that was also the impetus for Andre's departure from Chile years ago. Moreover, there is someone at the party he goes to great lengths to avoid. But she is the very person he most needs to see.

Léa lives in Le Havre, where she attends college whilst taking care of her elderly grandmother. To make ends meet, she works as a waitress in a night club. Her admittance to the Institute of Political Studies in Paris offers her new opportunities, but at a high price. Léa finds work as a striptease artist, so that each evening she can put into practice the theory of economic liberalism which she learns by day...

Monica, a renowned choreographer, returns to Spain after a 20 year absence to see her sick father. Upon arriving her father has already died and her mother asks her to stay to sell the family home. In delaying her return to Buenos Aires Monica rediscovers her childhood landscapes and is forced to confront the past.

When the Chilean officials lift the ban on harvesting the shellfish "el loco" (which purportedly is an aphrodisiac) in the seaside village of Puerto Gala greed and lust take hold. Greed is embodied by Carlos Maldonato, "El Canuto," who attempts to buy all of the shellfish for a Japanese company, and by a traveling band of prostitutes that accompany the influx of fishermen. El Canuto also wrangles to get into good stead with an old flame, Sonia, who is now the proprietor of "La Pincoya," a local restaurant. But "el loco" proves more effective, and more damaging, than anyone could have guessed.

The employer is a young man who apparently has everything going on for him except one pressing concern: his baby’s health. The employee is looking for a job to support his newborn too, so does not hesitate when the first decides to hire him to work in his lands. Both will meet their needs by helping each other. But one day an accident happens. This unexpected event will strain the ties between them, endangering the fate of the two families.

In the kingdom of Letonia, the young prince Égon spends his nights playing the drums. During the day, he only has one thing on his mind: finding Sleeping Beauty in the kingdom of Kentz and breaking the spell over her. But his father, the king, doesn’t believe in fairy tales, and is completely opposed to Égon’s dream. It’s Maggie Jerkins, an archeologist from Unesco, who will provide Egon with the opportunity to follow his heart.

Nada is going home. Or at least she wants to. When she comes back to Lebanon, she realizes she's a foreigner in her own country. But there's still a place she calls home: an abandoned house in ruins, haunted by the presence of her grandfather who disappeared mysteriously during the civil war. Something happened in this house. Something violent. A young woman searching for the truth and discovering herself.

A man’s enthusiasm turns into greed and causes trouble for his family.

In her room, Mona, a young teenager, gets ready. She waits for the arrival of the one with whom she is in love.

There is a wrecked car in the Algerian desert. The girl gets in and drives. Apart from sand, there is nothing to see for miles. Searching for a change of scenery, she visits the elderly in her village and the nearby oasis. However, whether shepherd, merchant or blacksmith, nobody can see what she sees.

Two men meet around a camera: the old man recounts a lost love to the young director. To remember this love, the old man reads his texts, one of which alludes to a place that holds special memories: Ostend. The director then summons a third man and in turn creates the pictures of a lost love, in a shift towards fiction.

Lucille, an introverted eleven year old girl, live with her parents, who are caretakers of the swimming pool in which they stay. Because of the weirdness of this place, which looks like a flying saucer, an awful anguish comes out of Lucille's mind. The "unidentified frightening object" of her confusion would happen to be even more obsessing than all fears of childhood.

Jean is a fireman whose girl friend Albertine died of a horse accident shortly after having left him. He suffers a great pain because he had serious hopes of her coming back home. It’s a double punishment which he attempts to confess to his fellow firemen between two rescue urgencies. His grief and his doubts invade gently the fire station.

On an island lost between two worlds, Dai, a young Chinese woman, survives alone in a cave, waiting for the baby that swells her womb day after day. Around the harbour which, every day, flurry with the arrival of hundreds of migrants, she searches tirelessly the face of the man she loves, her husband. One, night her wish is to be fulfilled

New Territories is a journey of initiation through faith and beliefs on the border between life and death. Two women poles apart, two paths: one is a living French businesswoman; the other is a Chinese textile worker. While Li Yu is preparing herself to reach Hong Kong clandestinely in search for a better life, Eve is conquering the Asian market with a new funeral rite.