Crossing the Playground

In Italy in the 90s, Zena, daughter of the Pope's doctor and granddaughter of a former fascist, is admitted to a reformatory, Villa Bianca, where deviances are “cured”, the last resort for the parents of Italian good society who wish to “repair” a rebellious generation. There, she meets and befriends three teenagers: a young nymphomaniac, Alfonso, a whimsical young man who intends to express his homosexuality, and Adriano, who has been mute since his mother's disappearance.

Bologna, 2002. Amidst protests against the labor reform, the assassination of a lawyer opens old wounds between Italy and France. Former far-left terrorist Marco, convicted of murder during the Years of Lead and living in Paris since then thanks to the Mitterrand Doctrine, is suspected of being its instigator. When the Italian government asks for extradition, Marco goes into hiding with his daughter Viola, precipitating also the life of his family back in Italy.

Oddball characters, weird mishaps, fates intertwining: the search for the meaning of life goes on. A college student falls for her philosophy lecturer; a disabled man seeks recovery; a popstar meets a spiritual guru; and the arrival of a mysterious luminescent man, perhaps real or perhaps not.

Feeling smothered by both stifling heat and their parents, these young women long for a dip in the enticing pool of adulthood. An anthology of award-winning French Shorts.

The forest, the dunes, the ocean. Thomas and Simon, 12 and 9 years old, pedal fast. They know she comes to sunbathe here everyday, naked, on the beach. Away from the rest of the world.

An interview with film composer Ennio Morricone discussing his music for Elio Petri's 1970 film INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION.

In one Paris divided militarily into two like was the former Berlin Est-Ouest, Ines Raymond receives from the right bank people who ask for a visa for the left bank. Each have their reasons and dreams for crossing the Seine, but, Ines must follow the new instructions.