Patrick Bateman, from 'American Gamer', not to be mistaken with Patrick Bateman from the film American Psycho, is a determined gamer who strives to be the best in the Gaming Club. As the gamer lifestyle starts to creep up on him, he spirals into insanity.
Two blokes, Mick and Chappo, do some walking and talking over the ANZAC Bridge. Unexpectedly, they find themselves in a conversation typically foreign to their longstanding friendship: "a serious chat".
In Peru in 1990, Makoto, a man of Japanese descent, visits the old house where he lived with his father. Upon seeing it, he remembers when his father began training him in the martial art "Aikido" so that he could defend himself at school, where he was beaten for his Asian features.
When 18-year-old Hans arrives from military service to spend a weekend at his countryside home, he notices his dad’s strange escapism and unfair treatment of his younger brother. Before his weekend permit runs out, Hans must heal dad’s painbody and deal with the confrontation.
Mak, a young man working his night shift at a gas station, encounters Nada, a female truck driver. They bond over their shared Macedonian roots and find comfort in each other, as they attempt to escape their individual loneliness.
In war-torn Ukraine, every day may be your last. The constant threat of annihilation has shaped Maria and Sasha’s intense yet tender relationship. But Sasha must return to the front line with his battalion in the morning. Maria, as his mistress, contemplates a heart-wrenching decision: go with him to the war, risking everything to have a few more precious moments with him; or stay in Kyiv knowing that, dead or alive, he will always belong to his family.
Nelu works at a pawn shop, and Ilinca is employed at a travel agency in the same busy intersection. Their daily routine includes having a quick lunch together while making various life plans.
In Bhutan, a country of 700,000 people, everyone knows everyone else. Nima, a schoolteacher, faces trouble when an explicit intimate video surfaces online, featuring a woman who looks exactly like her. Determined to calm her students’ outraged parents, Nima embarks on a quest to find her naughty lookalike. But her doppelganger, Meto, has disappeared without a trace. The locals, struck by Nima’s uncanny resemblance to Meto, begin to believe she is Meto’s long-lost ghost. The village elders suggest singing Aum Tshomo’s sacred song to unravel the mystery. Now, Nima must open her heart and sing to rebuild her shattered life.
In the Himalayan Mountain range, a rural village loses its inhabitants to the city’s allure while an elderly couple, Padam Singh and Tulsi, live in desolate isolation. Their days are filled with routine and occasional humour as they mask their loneliness. Their son’s absence gnaws at them, and when a letter arrives promising his return, it reignites their hearts with joy and anticipation. However, the reunion does not unfold as expected, shattering their hopes. As the film climaxes, the spectator is confronted with a more rueful plight, deeply engaging the audience’s empathy.
When his car breaks down during a fateful road trip, Evan, a suicidal young man, meets Léo, a mysterious boy who offers to drive him to his destination. Along the way, romantic tension ensues as the pair reckon with traumas of the past, conflicts of the present and the potential of the future – together or apart. Evan soon realizes that he may have found something – or someone – worth living for.