Presagio

Three generations of women survive the east wind, fire, insanity, superstition and even death by means of goodness, lies and boundless vitality.

The story is set at the beginning of the 20th century in Sicily. Salvatore, a very poor farmer, and a widower, decides to emigrate to the US with all his family, including his old mother. Before they embark, they meet Lucy. She is supposed to be a British lady and wants to come back to the States. Lucy, or Luce as Salvatore calls her, for unknown reasons wants to marry someone before to arrive to Ellis Island in New York. Salvatore accepts the proposal. Once they arrive in Ellis Island they spend the quarantine period trying to pass the examinations to be admitted to the States. Tests are not so simple for poor farmers coming from Sicily. Their destiny is in the hands of the custom officers.

37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Johnny, even though she doesn't love him. When she meets his estranged younger brother Ronny, an emotional and passionate man, she finds herself drawn to him. She tries to resist, but Ronny, who blames his brother for the loss of his hand, has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls for Ronny, she learns that she's not the only one in her family with a secret romance.

Callimaco, a wealthy young man, falls madly in love with Lucrezia, the beautiful young wife of a much older man, Messer Nicia. But Lucrezia is honest and faithful. Her husband has failed to help her discover love. Lucrezia will resist the combined assaults of her mother, her confessor and her husband for a long time before agreeing to cheat on him. How to approach her?

Matko is a small time hustler, living by the Danube with his 17-year-old son Zare. After a failed business deal he owes money to the much more successful gangster Dadan. Dadan has a sister, Afrodita, that he desperately wants to see get married so they strike a deal: Zare is to marry her.

Region of Castilla La Vieja, Spain, early 20th century. In Luján, a village ravaged by drought, Juan, a humble farmer who survives with his wife and son, confronts a local loan shark and is imprisoned as a result.

Two escaped cons' only prayer to escape is to pass themselves off as priests and pass by the police blockade at the border into the safety of Canada.

A visually challenged boy from the mesmerising village of Chilika lake of Odisha defeats age old blind Odia faith.

A doctor searches for the cure for nagana, the sleeping sickness caused by the tsetse fly.

A police officer arrests pitiable Thanasis, who admits to having stolen the trousers of a happy man in the hope of becoming happy himself, after being advised to do so by a Gypsy. He confesses that, in order to marry his girlfriend, he asked to borrow a pair of trousers, but no one would lend them to him, so he went ahead and stole a pair of trousers, but no one was willing to lend him. So he decided to steal one. The policeman assists him and finds the trouser holder and also works for Thanasis. So the latter can now marry his girlfriend and make a family.