Яма

Two men discuss the nature of accidents and the possibility of nuclear war.

Markuss must adapt to a new life living with his granny in the countryside. After Emīlija – a neighbor’s daughter – throws some contemptuous remarks about the boy’s father, Markuss decides to teach her a cruel lesson. This has severely negative consequences which resonate throughout the village. Forced to work the boy begins to harbor hatred towards the others in the village. The only person the boy can relate to is an old Sailor living in the nearby woods. They inspire one another and keep each other’s secrets. It is only through an accidental turn of events that Emīlija’s mother’s intended sanctions against Markuss and the boy’s reputation in the eyes of the inhabitants of the village radically change.

In the Russian provinces life seems to have frozen since the 1990s. Here you can hide from the worries of the big world, and heal the wounds of the soul. Thus argues Mila, having decided to return home to the mother’s house after an unsuccessful attempt “to conquer Moscow”. Mila’s sister Galya also wants happiness without thinking about the price. The passion that is aroused in the women by Rustam, a young handsome man from Central Asia, disrupts the family peace. A terrible enlightenment awaits the participants of this family drama.

Samat is an orphan, and he strikes up a friendship with Musa, who is wheelchair bound due to illness. Little does he know Musa has ties to the criminal world.

This picturesque Ukrainian farm is not surrounded by fields, but by huge housing developments. Ominous cranes overlook Natasha's land at the edge of Kiev, which year after year is being pushed deeper into a pit by new panel buildings. The brave owner protects not only acres of land, but also traditional family values, faith and ownership. From a bird's-eye view of the farm, a sharp contrast emerges between the village and the city. This peculiar family business model is set forth in a four-year chronicle from the point of view of foreign visitors who don't interfere with the way of life that the family has lived for generations.

"Trees and Jamaica Daddy" was the first of a UPA series (short-lived) that featured two different subjects (plot, characters)running about 3.5 minutes each, on a seven-minute reel. The first one here was titled "Trees", featuring a little girl named Hattie giving her version of the birds, the bees and trees. The second one on the reel was called "Jamaica Daddy", about the animated Hamilton Ham and his band, who tell all about, in music and the usual UPA animation style, Jamaica Daddy, and his family tree in calypso fashion. "Ham-and-Hattie" were not a team, and did not appear together in this cartoon.

As a student at the National Music Academy in Kyiv, Denis takes his graduation project very seriously. But he doesn’t want to be absorbed by the routine of formal examinations. He decides to revisit and present a new edition of The Barber of Seville, bringing to the stage young and unknown vocal talents, and motivating the artists to sing and recite in Italian, the opera’s original language. What does it mean to be both a student and a conductor? How do you deal with organisational problems and a hostile orchestra, unwilling to collaborate? How do you get through all of this without lowering the artistic standards your mentor has been teaching you for the past few years?