Fighting over a television remote control, an eight year old girl and her little brother break a window. Mum will soon be home. What will they do? What will they tell her?
The two of them come up with a quick scheme to sort out the grave problem at hand; an emotional roller coaster that marks the end of their innocent cosy world. In the next ten minutes big sister comes up with the perfect plan and to her surprise, little brother becomes her unquestioning follower, or so she thinks.
Senses is a feature-length portmanteau film divided into five parts. Each part is named after its story's protagonist, is written and directed by a different person, and set in a different part of the world.
The stories are not exactly related to one another except through their thematic link to one of the five senses. Each story is very different in terms of narrative, tone, and adopted approach to its theme, crossing genre boundaries to give Senses a broad and rich appeal.
Part One: Anna
Anna, a cellist in her 20's, arrives at a remote church by the coast to stay with Helen, an old friend of the family who now lives with reclusive retired music conductor, Rashid. While there, Anna learns that Rashid is afflicted by a mysterious malady which forces him to hear human suffering as it occurs throughout the world. A malady with which she herself will come to be afflicted.
Part Two: Jerry
Jerry Sitzer is a native New Yorker who has a pre-occupation with underwear. Musing over his life, Jerry sorts through his neuroses, memories, and guilt on a quest to find true love after yet another failed relationship.
Part Three: Arthur
Arthur Stone is a freelance paparazzo, addled by a worsening amphetemine addiction and consumed by bitterness and disillusion. When he snaps a shot of what he thinks may be the clue to a murder and threatening notes begin to appear, his life and mind begin to derail, forcing him ultimately to confront his own values and double-standards, as well as the supposed infallibility of the recorded image.
Part Four: Zoe
When Zoe decided to go visit her friend and ex-lover Claude in Paris, she discovers that he now lives as a transvestite in a commune dedicated to the pleasures of food and flesh. At first drawn to the sense of free abandon inside the House, as the night wears on, she realises that there is still hope of finding that unique spice which could make sense of her life.
Part Five: Anais
Their marriage on the verge of collapse, Anais and Moncho journey to San Pedro on the edge of the Attacama Desert to meet a shaman named Abuelo Peto. He introduces them to the San Pedro cactus, a hallucinogenic plant that he says will help them understand their problems and each other better. Together they begin a journey that they hope will save their relationship, but with almost tragic consequences.
Sammy Gilanders is a quiet and sensitive seven-year-old boy, whose simple and uncomplicated life was forever altered when his mother gave birth to baby Susie. On the day of Susie's christening the whole villiage turns out to wish her well and get drunk at the reception. Running away before the service Sammy finds solace in the shade of a large lonely tree behind the church. The tranquility of his shaded haven has a profound effect on Sammy which in a bizarre turn helps Sammy to readjust to the new role of older brother.
Shaun of the Dead is an everyday tale of life, love and the living dead focussing on a group of friends who encounter a literal night from hell at their local pub resulting in a zombie holocaust.
In the ex-colliery villages of East Durham, there is an abyss: falling down it is an easy thing. In a dangerous landscape, Barry, 40-year-old ex-youth worker, occasional labourer, wryly comic storyteller and single father, watches out for his 12-year-old son Callum. His eye is drawn to Emma, a 22-year-old with two children, Jade, 7 and Shannon, 4. Barry likes to help, likes kids and likes Emma. But Emma has her own worries.
The film follows her personal journey as she single-mindedly tries to get her partner Darren off heroin: as she acquires the cocktail of drugs that will see him through his 'rattle' and takes him to 'The Breakies', a bleakly isolated collection of fishing huts, out beyond the steelworks, at the mouth of the Tees. And it follows Barry, Jade, Shannon and Callum in tow, picking up the pieces in a community that has moved further and further away from the economic mainstream. The abyss yawns and Barry negotiates the difficult terrain opening up from his own serious misjudgements. Watched by the disapproving Callum, his attempts to help Emma draw him ever closer to the edge.
Skagerrak is the story of being struck by happiness when you least expect it. In their late twenties and tired of partying their way around the world, Danish Marie and Irish Sophie come ashore in Northern Scotland. After another drunken night they are soon parted from their accumulated cash. Out of money and out of luck, ambitious Sophie pressures Marie into accepting a lucrative job as a surrogate mother.
Months later, Marie finds herself alone, life having taken a dramatic turn. Heavily pregnant, and waiting to terminate her pregnancy, she's on the run from the future parents, searching for Sophie's old flame, Ken. Marie ends up hiding with three other strange men in a seedy Glasgow garage. But then happiness strikes again.
The daughter of an aggrieved tramp consoles her father by reminding him of a time when her mother was still around. He was once a middle class loving husband, but flashbacks reveal that a devastating incident tore the couple apart. We see the shocking event that causes the wife's disappearance and, in turn, we must re-value the father/daughter relationship before us.
Petite Coupures tells the story of Bruno (Daniel Auteuil), a communist newspaper journalist suffering a mid-life crisis. Torn between his wife Gaelle (Emmanuelle Devos) and his young girlfriend Nathalie (Ludivine Sagnier), his political beliefs battered by the wind of history, Bruno seems to have lost his bearings. After responding to a call for help from his uncle (Jean Yanne), who is fighting a losing battle for re-election as the communist mayor of a small town near Grenoble, Bruno gets lost in a dark forest. There he meets Béatrice (Kristin Scott Thomas), who does nothing to stop him getting even more lost.
A low-key indie comedy about collaborating creatively with friends. Two young men in a London rock band have a large concert in ten days. They try to keep their plans and friendship together during the tense build up. Ultimately they triumph.
Lost in a daydream, an innocent young man gets a come-on from a sexy siren. Engaged in the pursuit of this bewitching vision, a lost shoe invites a display of athletic daring from our lovestruck hero.
A story of desire and determination. "Cinderella with a twist".
One soundtrack runs simultaneously to three visual narratives, as snatched moments bring back memories of a younger self. A film about time and growing up.
