A robotic boy, the first programmed to love, David (Haley Joel Osment) is adopted as a test case by a Cybertronics employee (Sam Robards) and his wife (Frances O'Connor). Though he gradually becomes their child, a series of unexpected circumstances make this life impossible for David. Without final acceptance by humans or machines, David embarks on a journey to discover where he truly belongs, uncovering a world in which the line between robot and machine is both vast and profoundly thin.
This docudrama tells the story of two adolescent girls (Zahra Naderi, Masume Naderi) in Iran who have been kept imprisoned by their father (Qorban Ali Naderi) in their home from the day they were born. Interacting with a social worker who was notified of the situation, the girls' father voices his conviction that allowing the girls out of the house would lead to their corruption by males and the vices of the outside world. The neglected girls, meanwhile, can barely walk or speak.
In 1950s Australia, young Celia (Rebecca Smart) is growing up with a sense of isolation and mistrust of the world that surrounds her. Her mother, Pat (Mary-Anne Fahey), and father, Ray (Nicholas Eadie), won't let her play with the kids next door because their parents are communists. Then her pet bunny is taken away because of rabbit overpopulation. And, more traumatizing yet, when her grandmother dies, she's the one to discover the corpse. To cope, she retreats into elaborate fantasies.
Director John Boorman drew from his own childhood experiences for this touching coming-of-age tale about a boy growing up in and around London during World War II. For young Billy Rowan (Sebastian Rice Edwards), the nightly bombings provide a frightening show, but they include opportunities to rummage through the rubble with friends in the mornings. As Billy plays, his family struggles to remain intact as they suffer through the anguish and losses of wartime.
In 1943, Julien (Gaspard Manesse) is a student at a French boarding school. When three new students arrive, including Jean Bonnett (Raphael Fejto), Julien believes they are no different from the other boys. What Julien doesn't know is that the boys are actually Jews who are evading capture by the Nazis. While Julien doesn't care for Jean at first, the boys develop a tight bond -- while the head of the school, Père Jean (Philippe Morier-Genoud), works to protect the boys from the Holocaust.
As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny (Pernilla Allwin) and Alexander (Bertil Guve) 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 (Ewa Fröling), marries a stern bishop (Jan Malmsjö). 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.
In an allegory of life after Gen. Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War, life in a remote village in the 1940s is calm and uneventful. Two little girls see a "Frankenstein" movie, and one of them starts wandering the countryside in search of this kind creature.
Abandoned by his mother, a 10-year-old (Michel Terrazon) exhibits disturbed behavior in a succession of foster homes.
Impoverished priest Harihar Ray (Kanu Bannerjee), dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work. Alone, his wife, Sarbojaya (Karuna Bannerjee), looks after her rebellious daughter, Durga (Uma Das Gupta), and her young son, Apu (Subir Bannerjee), as well as Harihar's elderly aunt Indir (Chunibala Devi). The children enjoy the small pleasures of their difficult life, while their parents suffer the daily indignities heaped upon them.
Two brothers, Keiji (Tomio Aoki) and Ryoichi (Hideo Sugawara), move to a new neighborhood in the Tokyo suburbs after their father, an office clerk, gets a promotion. The boys join the local gang as lowly new kids and emerge as natural leaders after defeating a bully. While visiting the home of their father's boss, the brothers witness the ridicule their father has endured to please his superior. Angry and embarrassed, the boys find their naive ideas about power being challenged.
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