Running from a dark secret, Danish backpacker Mike Hammershoi (Anders W. Berthelsen) arrives at Black's estate in the Scottish Borders, looking for work. Cut off from the outside world, Francis Black) Peter Mullan, the blind owner, lives there in a shuttered-up, decaying mansion, with his elderly mother Bella (Phyllida Law).
Francis reluctantly offers the traveller a low-paid job in the yard. Put off by the unsettling atmosphere, Mike declines the offer. But as he turns to go, he sets eyes on Rachel (Jodhi May), Francis' enigmatic young wife, and changes his mind. Mike starts work on the farm, dumping the debris of the Blacks' once-successful business into the mud pit - a bottomless vortex of quicksand at the end of the land.
Mike soon realises that Francis, increasingly embittered by his blindness, exerts a domineering power over Rachel. Rachel, emotionally suffocated by her husband, is increasingly attracted to Mike, whose presence awakens her pent-up sexual desire. Unable to resist each other, they become lovers. As the sexual tension increases, so too does Francis' jealousy rage. In a fit of anger, Francis sacks the traveller. The threat of Mike's departure forces Rachel to choose between her husband and her lover. Unaware of his dark past, Rachel decides to run away with Mike. Seething with fury, Francis stands, knife in hand, by the edge of the mud-pit waiting for the unsuspecting lovers as they prepare to make their escape.
Blue Gene Baby portrays visions of Genetic Identity and the scanning of the individual. The complexities of the individual can be reduced to numbers, codes and patterns through science. Genetic profiling and engineering hold a potential for human transformation both good and bad. But who will be checking the morality of these scientific advances?
The basic plot tells the story of a twenty one-year-old university student, Manisha, and her English boyfriend, Paul. What follows is a typical and very moving story of the clash between her modern way of life and her parents preconceptions of how she must live.
It's the late 60s. The English invasion has conquered the world! The Liverpool Sound tops the charts in every country - except Ireland! There, so called Ceili music - a form of traditional music - still reigns supreme. And they're about to hold the annual Ceili competition to determine who's the best band in the land.
But could the unthinkable happen? Could an upstart English band from Liverpool win the All Irish Championship for the first time in history? Transplanted Irishman Jimmy MacMahon (Colm Meaney) and his motley English crew have their hearts set on it.
Meanwhile, back in County Clare, Ireland, Jimmy's stalwart older brother, John Joe (Bernard Hill) and his fiesty local band are determined to win the trophy for the third year in a row.
The long-standing feud between the MacMahon brothers finally boils over as each tries to sabotage the other and win the first prize, by hook or by crook.
Wnen Liverpudlian Teddy (Shaun Evans), Jimmy's best flute player, falls head-over-heels in love with Anne (Andrea Corr), the beautiful young fiddle player in John Joe's band, her overly protective mother, Maisie (Charlotte Bradley), fears her daughter will end up heartbroken.
In an attempt to stop Anne from seeing Teddy, Maisie tells her daughter her own deepest, darkest secret - the true identity of Anne's father. He is none other than John Joe's rotten but charming younger brother Jimmy, who promised Maisie the world and then abandoned her once she was pregnant.
Now, 20 years later, a boldfaced Jimmy shows up - with no apparent regrets - throwing Maisie into a tizzy and infuriating John Joe who was in love with Maisie himself before John Joe stole her heart.
When all the blarney's said and done, blood is still thicker than water, but - when the time comes to play - who' s going home with the trophy? Who's going home with Anne?
On losing his job, Philip Brannigan finds himself unable to return home. His entire material world is collapsing. In his confused state, he adopts a religious sandwich board found in the park. And so begins his journey across the UK.
What at first seems like the aimless wandering of a confused man, gradually turns into a specific march towards Brannigan's childhood home. Brannigan experiences a number of encounters which are fuelled by the message on his board. 'The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth'. These are experiences that range from the sublime to the brutal, the mundane to the relevatory; experiences and encounters that reveal a changing external social landscape, and an evolving inner spiritual world.
Arriving on the east coast, Brannigan is faced with the reality that there is no home to go back to, no past in which to take shelter, and in his deepest moment of despair he discovers, through his interaction with the sea, a new strength and a new way of understanding his life.
In this experiential story, we are invited to immerse ourselves in the detail of Brannigan's experience and see the imagery of the everyday contemporary world in a mythological and mystical light.
Jessie wakes to hear footsteps inside her flat. Will she be able to confront them or will the monsters inside her head render her powerless? A powerful psychological drama about the nature of depression and what it means to be truly alive.
Trapped by unfinished homework on a Sunday afternoon, Kelly's bored and irritable. Sharing a bedroom with her elderly Grandmother is at the centre of Kelly's teenage discontent and the sleeping old woman is the target for her resentment.
Brick Lane is a British-Asian, Bollywood influenced comedy about the quest of two teenage boys out to impress the beautiful Nabeela at a local Bhangra Party - even at the expense of the notorious Bucksman. This short film explores the lives of Asian youth living in contemporary London.
When a wedding comes to a small town in the Indian countryside, it's a good opportunity for Mrs Bakshi to find eligible mates for her four daughters, but the smart and headstrong Lalita is determined to marry for love. Sparks fly when she meets the handsome American Will Darcy, but is it love or hate?
Gurinder Chadha directs this Bollywood-style re-telling of Jane Austen's classic tale of marriage and manners, transplanted to modern-day India, England and America, and complete with lavish musical spectacle.
