Looking for Joy (2013)

Do the Right Thing

Salvatore "Sal" Fragione is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.

The Piano

When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited daughter to the wilderness of nineteenth-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.

Together

Elisabeth leaves her abusive and drunken husband Rolf, and goes to live with her brother, Göran. The year is 1975 and Göran lives in a commune called Together. Living in this leftist commune Elisabeth learns that the world can be viewed from different perspectives.

Brother

A Japanese Yakuza gangster's deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother's gang.

Two Loves

American-born Anna Vorontosov teaches school in a remote, primitive section of northern New Zealand. Her experimental teaching methods have won her the love and affection of her pupils and their parents and the admiration of the unhappily married school inspector, Abercrombie. Her personal life, however, is less secure; frightened of love and sexually inhibited, she has always been aloof with men. Eager to break down this barrier is Englishman Paul Lathrope, a somewhat irrational and immature fellow teacher who aspires to be a singer. Though Anna is attracted to him, she refuses to submit to his advances.

Lost in Translation

Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.

Driving Miss Daisy

The story of an old Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan and her relationship with her black chauffeur, Hoke. From an initial mere work relationship grew in 25 years a strong friendship between the two very different characters, in a time when those types of relationships were shunned.

Popular Music

Matti and Niila, growing up in the mid-sixties in the harsh and conservative environment of a Finnish-speaking part of Tornedalen in Swedish Laponia, close to the Finnish border. Their big dream is to become rock stars. In the present the now grown-up Matti feels guilt for the death of his drug-addicted rock star friend Niila.

Bend It Like Beckham

Jess Bhamra, the daughter of a strict Indian couple in London, is not permitted to play organized soccer, even though she is 18. When Jess is playing for fun one day, her impressive skills are seen by Jules Paxton, who then convinces Jess to play for her semi-pro team. Jess uses elaborate excuses to hide her matches from her family while also dealing with her romantic feelings for her coach, Joe.

As It Is in Heaven

A musical romantic tragedy about a famous composer who moves back to his small hometown after having had heart troubles. His search for a simple everyday life leads him into teaching the local church choir, which is not easily accepted by the town yet the choir builds a great love for their teacher.

Dances with Wolves

Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.

Undress Me

Mikaela has undergone gender reassignment and is now a woman. One night at a bar, she meets a guy and takes him back to her place.

The Infidel

Based in a London suburb Mahmud Nasir lives with his wife, Saamiya, and two children, Rashid and Nabi. His son plans to marry Uzma, the step-daughter of Egyptian-born Arshad Al-Masri, a so-called 'Hate Cleric' from Waziristan, Pakistan. Mahmud, who is not exactly a devout Muslim, he drinks alcohol, and does not pray five times, but does agree that he will appease Arshad, without whose approval the marriage cannot take place. Shortly thereafter Mahmud, while going over his recently deceased mother's documents, will find out that he was adopted, his birth parents were Jewish, and his name is actually Solly Shimshillewitz.

Lilya 4-ever

Sixteen-year-old Lilja and her only friend, the young boy Volodja, live in Russia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej, who is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life.

Let the Right One In

When Oskar, a sensitive, bullied 12-year-old boy, meets his new neighbor, the mysterious and moody Eli, they strike up a friendship. Initially reserved with each other, Oskar and Eli slowly form a close bond, but it soon becomes apparent that she is no ordinary young girl.

Anita and Me

Meena, a 12-year-old living in a mining village in the English Midlands in 1972, is the daughter of Indian parents who've come to England to give her a better life. This idyllic existence is upset by the arrival in the village of Anita Rutter and her dysfunctional family.

East Is East

In 1971 Salford fish-and-chip shop owner George Khan expects his family to follow his strict Pakistani Muslim ways. But his children, with an English mother and having been born and brought up in Britain, increasingly see themselves as British and start to reject their father's rules on dress, food, religion, and living in general.

Gripsholm

Kurt and Lydia are planning a relaxed vacation at the Gripsholm castle in Sweden . What Lydia does not know is that for Kurt, a well-known publicist, the journey is actually a flight from encroaching fascism and a direct threat from the Nazis.

Midsummer

It is the last day of school for Christian and his younger sister Sophie. They are heading to a party at his friend Trina. High school graduation is just around the corner and after the freedom and future. But behind the idyllic facade lurks tragedy and secrets. That evening Sophie commits suicide.

Dalecarlians

Mia returns from Stockholm to her parents' home in a small town in Dalecarlia (Dalarna) to celebrate her father's 70th birthday. Her elder sisters Eivor and Gunilla welcome her, but their different lifestyles prevent them from really communicating. The tension builds, and the party that should be a celebration turns out to be a turning point for the family and their friends

Home Is Where Your Heart Is

Axel is Dutch Surinamese, but after 20 years of living in the Netherlands he has become 100% Dutch. He has married a Dutch girl, Victoria, and has never been back. When his free-spirited mother Gladys summons the family to her guesthouse in Surinam for Christmas and an important announcement, Axel, his wife and her sister Mirna reluctantly make the journey. They have barely arrived when the situation gets completely out of hand, with his brother Virgil winding him up and his daughter Wonnie, who is doing an internship in Paramaribo, admitting that she is pregnant...

What a Girl Wants

An American girl, Daphne, heads to Europe in search of the father she's never met. But instead of finding a British version of her bohemian mother, she learns the love of her mom's life is an uptight politician. The only problem now is that her long-lost dad is engaged to a fiercely territorial social climber with a daughter who makes Daphne's life miserable.

Show Me Love

Two teenage girls in small-town Sweden. Elin is beautiful, popular, and bored with life. Agnes is friendless, sad, and secretly in love with Elin.

Fools Rush In

After a one night stand with Alex, Isabel realizes that she is pregnant and they decide to get married. However, along with the marriage comes compromise of one's own cultural traditions.

Hollywoodtürke

Romantic Comedy about Alper, an unsuccessful Turkish actor from Berlin, Germany, who has to pretend to be an Italian to win his first role and the heart of a German girl who doesn't like Turkish guys.

Fanny and Alexander

As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.

Miffo

Tobias is the new, idealistic priest in a suburb but he soon learns that his flock is quite uninterested in Christianity. However, he befriends Carolina, a chain smoking woman his age, wheelchair-bound since birth. It is opposites attract although their backgrounds are different.

East Side Sushi

Years of working in the food industry have made Juana, a working-class Latina, a chef of speed and skill. Searching for financial stability, she stumbles into a high-energy, male-dominated Japanese cuisine kitchen. The new atmosphere re-ignites her passions for food and life and makes her hungry to get mixed up in the flavors of this new world.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

A young Greek woman falls in love with a non-Greek and struggles to get her family to accept him while she comes to terms with her heritage and cultural identity.

The White Dawn

In 1896, three survivors of a whaling ship-wreck in the Canadian Arctic are saved and adopted by an Eskimo tribe but frictions arise when the three start misbehaving.

Are You Lonesome Tonight?

A desperate socialite seeks her missing husband, troubled by bad investments and debts, with help from a private eye and the high-priced call girl hubby had been seeing.

You, the Living

In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past. Some are just seconds long, none longer than a couple of minutes. A young woman remembers a fantasy honeymoon with a rock guitarist. A man awakes from a dream about bomber planes. A businessman boasts about success while being robbed by a pickpocket, and so on. The absurdist collection is accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music.

The Best Man's Wedding

Roro, a foreign worker in Swedish parks, loves his girlfriend but is about to marry another girl to prevent her from being sent back to Lebanon. Meanwhile, Roro's best friend, Måns, has serious problems getting an erection.

G

Three friends, Robban, Alexander and Kim has just left the compulsory school, and now they consider themselves grown-up and mature, being 16 years old. During the summer holiday they also get a bit of experience of the world: Robban becomes a full-time drug addict, Alexander plays in a rock band but leaves it and Kim is desperate to get the girl of his dreams.

Tel Visa

A Nepalese family navigate cultural differences in the US, and the complications social media can cause. Despite their struggles and fears, the family support each other. The question of what 'normal' is subjective to the culture.

Hideous Kinky

In 1972, disenchanted about the dreary conventions of English life, 25-year-old Julia heads for Morocco with her daughters, six-year-old Lucy and precocious eight-year-old Bea.

Cries and Whispers

As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so immersed in their own psychic pains that they are unable to offer her the support she needs.

The Abdication

Queen Christina of Sweden abdicates and travels to Rome to embrace the Catholic church.

Queen Christina

Popular monarch Queen Christina of Sweden must choose between love and loyalty to her nation when she unexpectedly falls for a Spanish envoy.

I Am Curious (Blue)

The same movie with the same characters, cast and crew as I am Curious (Yellow), but with some different scenes and a different political slant. The political focus in Blue is personal relationships, religion, prisons and sex. Blue omits much of the class consciousness and non-violence interviews of the first version. Yellow and Blue are the colors of the Swedish flag.

Bergman Island

An English-German filmmaking couple retreat to Fårö for the summer to each write screenplays for their upcoming films in an act of pilgrimage to the place that inspired Ingmar Bergman. As the summer and their screenplays advance, the lines between reality and fiction start to blur against the backdrop of the Island's wild landscape.

Homecoming

Madde lives a hectic life in Stockholm. One day she receives a letter from her father Leif who wants her to come back to her childhood home. An intense weekend with her father changes her attitude to the rural area she left a long time ago.

Elina: As If I Wasn't There

In rural Sweden of the early 1950s, little Elina goes to school again after recovering from tuberculosis, the same illness that has killed her father a few years earlier. Elina's family belongs to Finnish-speaking Finns frowned upon by a staunch schoolmistress who starts hounding Elina for questioning her authority. Elina's mother, sister, and a liberal young male teacher all try to mediate the ensuing battle of wills between Elina and Miss Holm. Elina finds consolation in wandering out on the dangerous marshlands to have imaginary conversations with her dead father. Written by Markku Kuoppamäki

Operation Ragnarok

A town in south of Sweden is isolated after a viral outbreak. The Swedes and immigrants still inside must band together to survive the onslaught.

Cornelis

”Cornelis” is the unique chronicle about one of Sweden’s greatest music legends - Cornelis Vreeswijk. An honest and gripping account of an exceptionally talented, but self-destructive artist’s intense life both on and behind the stage. A man who during his whole life was searching for love and confirmation.

Stolen

A young woman struggles to defend her Sámi heritage in a world where xenophobia is on the rise, climate change is threatening reindeer herding, and young people choose suicide in the face of collective desperation.

The Counterfeit Traitor

Blacklisted in modern day WW2, a Swedish oil trader opts to assist British Allies, by means of infiltrating and surveying Nazi Germany.

Say That You Love Me

Fatou is a teenager yearning for attention and love in Sweden's suburbs. When she is gang raped by some class mates her whole world starts falling apart.

A Trip to Jamaica

A story about the adventures of a newly engaged couple in their relatives residence outside Nigeria, and how the secrets of their host led to the eventual breakup of their union amidst the culture shock of the new country and living with upper-class citizens.

Becoming Astrid

When Astrid Lindgren was very young something happened that affected her profoundly, and this combination of both miracle and calamity came to shape her entire life. It was an event that transformed her into one of the most inspiring women of our age and the storyteller a whole world would come to love. This is the story of when a young Astrid, despite the expectations of her time and religious upbringing, decided to break free from society's norms and follow her heart.

Arn: The Kingdom at Road's End

Arn has served his term in the Holy land and returns home to be reunited with his beloved Cecilia. When he returns home, he discovers that political forces tries to separate him and Cecilia - but thanks to queen Blanka they can finally get married. Arn knows that war is looming and with his martial knowledge he starts to build an army at his new home at Forsvik.

Gung Ho

When a western Pennsylvania auto plant is acquired by a Japanese company, brokering auto worker Hunt Stevenson faces the tricky challenge of mediating the assimilation of two clashing corporate cultures. At one end is the Japanese plant manager and the sycophant who is angling for his position. At the other, a number of disgruntled long-time union members struggle with the new exigencies of Japanese quality control.

A Day in October

During the month of October 1943, the Danish resistance movement and just plain ordinary citizens joined together in staging a mass exodus by fishing boats to neutral Sweden of their Jewish countrymen, practically on the eve of the Nazi's planned round-up and delivery to concentration camps of all Jews. Story is told from the point of view of one Jewish family.

The Flight of the Eagle

The Swedish 19th century engineer Salomon August Andrée sets out to become the first man on the north pole. His idea is to launch a polar expedition using a hydrogen balloon, together with two friends. The balloon, "The Eagle", takes off from Svalbard in 1897, but the three men are not heard of again.

AmericanEast

Summer in L.A., it's hot. Homeland Security has set the threat level at red; they're searching for several Arabs alleged to be terrorists. Mustafa, an Egyptian immigrant who runs a falafel shop, comes to the FBI's attention; they investigate him. He has other problems: his young teen son no longer wants to be a Muslim; his sister, a nurse, objects to Mustafa arranging her marriage to a cousin from Egypt. She has a non-Arab suitor of her own. Omar, an employee of Mustafa, is a struggling actor who doesn't want to play only terrorists. Mustafa hopes to open a real restaurant and has a potential partner in Sam, a Jew, whose family objects. What is the price of the American dream?

Lucky Blue

Olle, an introverted, well-mannered boy with an air of innocence and sincerity about him has been camping with his father at the same camping ground with several other people for years now. A sort of tradition that ends in a karaoke party. Then one summer, a family friend brings her reticent 'city boy' nephew, Kevin, and his pet budgerigar. Olle accidentally releases the bird and what follows is a discovery of friendship and love between the guy who has grown up in a loving environment and simply accepts love for what it is and the guy who's apparently been burned too many times in his own circle to feel comfortable with it.

Double Happiness

Jade Li is a feisty, 20-something Chinese Canadian, trying to achieve that happy medium between giving in to her parent's wishes and fulfilling her own needs and desires - double happiness. Naturally, something's got to give and when love beckons in the shape of Mark, a white university student, the facade of the perfect Chinese daughter begins to slip.

Midsommar

Several friends travel to Sweden to study as anthropologists a summer festival that is held every ninety years in the remote hometown of one of them. What begins as a dream vacation in a place where the sun never sets, gradually turns into a dark nightmare as the mysterious inhabitants invite them to participate in their disturbing festive activities.

My Name Is Love

Love and Sebastian meet each other by a coincidence at a street in the romantic Swedish summer night. They happen to share the same secret, but their encounter is going to cause severe consequences for the both of them. An innocent flirt soon turns in to a dangerously liaison.