The Devil Makes Work For Idle Hands (2025)

RSC Live: Titus Andronicus

The decay of Rome reaches violent depths in Shakespeareas most bloody play. Titus is a ruler exhausted by war and loss, who relinquishes power but leaves Rome in disorder. Rape, cannibalism and severed body parts fill the moral void at the heart of this corrupt society. Shakespeareas gory revenge tragedy presents us with murder as entertainment, and, as the body count piles up, poses questions about the nature of sexuality, family, class and society.

Angela's Ashes

An Irish Catholic family returns to 1930s Limerick after a child's death in America. The unemployed I.R.A. veteran father struggles with poverty, prejudice, and alcoholism as the family endures harsh slum conditions.

Gods

A Peruvian teen lusts after his wild sister while the new wife of their difficult, wealthy father tries to hide her lower-class background.

Accattone

A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiralling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.

Pelle the Conqueror

In the late 19th century, two Swedish emigrants, Lasse Karlsson and his son Pelle, arrive on the Danish island of Bornholm hoping to find work on a farm and save enough money to travel to the United States of America.

Nayda

In a desperate attempt to make their voices heard by the government, two men and a woman, living in difficult circumstances in the Tin Shacks, take a diplomatic meeting with political officials, which turns into a hostage situation. Compelled by circumstances, they unwittingly find themselves cast in the role of terrorists, thereby exposing social inequalities and government indifference.

In the Heat of the Night

African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.

Rosetta

Young, impulsive Rosetta lives a hard and stressful life as she struggles to support herself and her alcoholic mother. Refusing all charity, she is desperate to maintain a dignified job.

Pretty in Pink

Andie is an outcast, hanging out either with her older boss, who owns the record store where she works, or her quirky high school classmate Duckie, who has a crush on her. When one of the rich and popular kids at school, Blane, asks Andie out, it seems too good to be true. As Andie starts falling for Blane, she begins to realize that dating someone from a different social sphere is not easy.

Scarborough

Three kids in a low-income neighborhood find friendship and community in an unlikely place.

Sergi & Irina

Raixa estate, June 24, 1939. Sergi Forteza, son of the landowner, falls in love with Irina Dols, niece of the foreman, during the celebration of the summer solstice party.

Elizabeth's Gift

When a precious little girl dies tragically of a rare heart condition, her grieving parents are left to pick up the pieces of their once perfect life. In a sequence of events influenced by faith (and perhaps miracles), they are guided to a homeless girl on the streets, and a battle ensues to reunite as a family and heal their broken hearts.

Wendy and Lucy

A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.

Five Fingers for Marseilles

Years ago, the young Five Fingers fought for the rural town of Marseilles against brutal police oppression. Now, after fleeing in disgrace, Tau, one of them, returns to Marseilles, seeking only a peaceful life. When he finds the town under new threat, he must reluctantly fight to free it.

Greed

A lottery win of $5,000 forever changes the lives of a miner turned dentist and his wife.

Beauty Mark

Angie, a poverty-stricken young mother, is taking care of her son and alcoholic mother when she is evicted from her house. Now she has to get money from the only person she knows with any - the man who abused her as a child.

Random

The story takes place on Valentine's Day in no man's land, one of the craziest days of the century, when everything is turned upside down, the turn of seemingly random events slowly connecting together.

Synoikia to Oneiro

A poor neighborhood of Athens, Asyrmatos, is the center of the world for the people who live there and try in every way to escape from poverty and destitution. A handsome released youth, Ricos (Alekos Alexandrakis), is trying to make money, at the same time that his lover, Stefi (Aliki Georgoulis), is seeing other men and her father, Nekrophoras (Manos Katrakis), is trying to contribute in family finances. Rico will set up a job, but will spend the money raised before he can put it into action. As a result, one of his "partners" (Alekos Petsos) will commit suicide, leaving his pregnant wife, Eleni (Aleka Paizis), to her fate. Rikos, his beloved and her father, defeated and disappointed because of the expectations that were never fulfilled, will be forced to come to terms with the harsh reality.

CJ7

A poor construction worker, who struggles to keep his son in private school, mistakes an orb he finds in a junkjard for a toy which proves to be much, much more once the young boy starts to play with it.

Invictus

Newly elected President Nelson Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's rugby union team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match.

Nights of Cabiria

Rome, 1957. A woman, Cabiria, is robbed and left to drown by her boyfriend, Giorgio. Rescued, she resumes her life and tries her best to find happiness in a cynical world. Even when she thinks her struggles are over and she has found happiness and contentment, things may not be what they seem.

The Rainbow Troops

A group of 10 students struggles with poverty and develop hopes for the future in Gantong Village on the farming and tin mining island of Belitung.

Three Grams of a Dream

In China, Ben & his friend watch a ping-pong competition on a communal village TV, and Ben's dreams begin. Ping-pong is in Ben's heart, but he can't ask his mum for money to buy the balls & paddles.

Soledad's Shawl

Alberto Robles, a young doctor, is faced with the decision to surrender to a life full of comforts and luxuries or to continue dedicating himself body and soul to serving those who need it most.

Sudden Fear

Actor Lester Blaine has all but landed the lead in Myra Hudson's new play when Myra vetoes him because, to her, he doesn't look like a romantic leading man. On a train from New York to San Francisco, Blaine sets out to prove Myra wrong...by romancing her. Is he sincere, or does he have a dark ulterior motive?

Roko and Cicibela

A poor fisherman and his girlfriend live in a small boat under an open sky for decades. Based on a true story.

Holler

In a forgotten pocket of Southern Ohio where American manufacturing and opportunity are drying up, a determined young woman finds a ticket out when she is accepted to college. Alongside her older brother, Ruth Avery joins a dangerous scrap metal crew in order to pay her way. Together, they spend one brutal winter working the scrap yards during the day and stealing valuable metal from the once thriving factories by night. With her goal in sight, Ruth finds that the ultimate cost of an education for a girl like her may be more than she bargained for, and she soon finds herself torn between a promising future and the family she would leave behind.

Wiseguys

Frankie Carbonara rises to the top of the Hurst College underworld by selling booze and running a speakeasy, however, the villain Pyle is not happy about his business being interfered with. The two gangsters clash, and it comes to a tragic conclusion of all out war.

Bandit Queen

Born a lower-caste girl in rural India's patriarchal society, "married" at 11, repeatedly raped and brutalized, Phoolan Devi finds freedom only as an avenging warrior, the eponymous Bandit Queen. Devi becomes a kind a bloody Robin Hood; this extraordinary biographical film offers both a vivid portrait of a driven woman and a savage critique of the society that made her.

The Bench

Kaj is a stubborn man with a great deal of pride. The former chef lives in a council flat. He has wasted his life and is now on a council job training scheme for the long-term unemployed, where he refuses to let the foreman of the activation project boss him about. When Kaj's daughter, with whom he has not been in touch for nineteen years, moves into the same council estate on the run from her violent husband, a change comes over Kaj. His initial instinct is to avoid her, but by chance he ends up helping to look after Jonas, her six-year-old son. For the first time for years Kaj need not survive on his own devices. Now he has responsibilities and a family of his own.

Jacir

A glance at the divided U.S. political system through the eyes of a young Syrian refugee on the streets of Memphis, TN, as he faces the harsh realities of chasing the American dream.

Days of Heaven

In 1916, a Chicago steel worker accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer.

The Right Way

Ali gets a job and, by dint of dedication and patience, achieves a significant promotion and ends up becoming the manager of the company, as well as winning Meltem's love. However, this is not to the liking of his cousin Cihangir and his father, who instead are totally broke and want to get their revenge on Ali.

Karuthukalai Pathivu Sei

Karuthukalai Pathivu Sei is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language critically acclaimed social crime thriller film directed by Rahul Paramahamsa. The film stars newcomer SSR Aryan in the male lead role and Upasana RC in the female lead role. The theme of the film is based on the challenges and issues confronted by women in the society due to social media.[1] Principal photography of the film commenced in late 2018. The film was released on 13 December 2019 and opened to mixed reviews

Lady Oscar

Oscar François de Jarjayes was born female, but her father insisted she be raised as a boy as he had no sons. She becomes the captain of the guards at Versailles under King Louis XVI and Marie Antonette. Her privileged, noble life comes under fire as she discovers the hard life of the poor people of France. She is caught up in the French Revolution, and must choose between her loyalty and love.

Sorcerer

Four men from different parts of the globe, all hiding from their pasts in the same remote South American town, agree to risk their lives transporting several cases of dynamite (which is so old that it is dripping unstable nitroglycerin) across dangerous jungle terrain.

Winter's Bone

After discovering her father put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared, 17-year-old Ree Dolly must confront the local criminal underworld and the harsh Ozark wilderness in order to to track down her father and save her family.

Lake Paliastomi

Ivane, a Gurian peasant is struggling with social inequality, trying to feed an impoverished family, pay state and rent taxes with extreme physical exertion and timber production. There is little hope for the future.

Satantango

Inhabitants of a small village in Hungary deal with the effects of the fall of Communism. The town's source of revenue, a factory, has closed, and the locals, who include a doctor and three couples, await a cash payment offered in the wake of the shuttering. Irimias, a villager thought to be dead, returns and, unbeknownst to the locals, is a police informant. In a scheme, he persuades the villagers to form a commune with him.

Gully Boy

A coming-of-age story based on the lives of street rappers in Mumbai.

Pandemonium, the Hell's Capital City

Adonai is an lunatic poet. He lives in an abandoned neighborhood of Caracas where he runs an underground radio called "Radio Pandemonium", he lives with his mom, his grandmother and a young lady who she calls very endearly, 'whore'. They survive among the corrupt, the death and the rising upheaval of the oppressed.

I Remember Mama

Norwegian immigrant Marta Hanson keeps a firm but loving hand on her household of four children, a devoted husband and a highly-educated lodger who reads great literature to the family every evening. Through financial crises, illnesses and the small triumphs of everyday life, Marta maintains her optimism and sense of humor, traits she passes on to her aspiring-author daughter, Katrin.

Shoplifters

In the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already fragile existence begins to unravel. As the family grows attached to her, buried secrets surface, forcing them to confront the true meaning of love, belonging, and what makes a family.

Retrieval

19 year old Wojtek lives in a poverty stricken Polish town. He is in love with an older woman, an illegal emigrant from Ukraine. He boxes in illegal matches to get money and is spotted by a man running a security business. Accepting this man's offer means becoming a gangster, but this could allow him to a residence permit for his girlfriend Katya.

America America

A young Anatolian Greek, entrusted with his family's fortune, loses it en route to Istanbul and dreams of going to America.

Love Will Tear Us Apart

The film gets under the skin of a very marginalized group: recent immigrants to Hong Kong from Mainland China. Belying the expectation that they will belong in a territory now returned to China's sovereignty, they find themselves lonely, frustrated, poor, and employable only in the most menial jobs, from elevator service staff to prostitution.