Locals remember when the Gaza Building in Beirut, Lebanon, was the Middle East’s best hospital. Today the dingy crumbling building is the last refuge for people who have nowhere else to go.

The Kurds are the largest ethnic group without a territory of their own. The discrimination they face in the Middle East pushes them into illegal activities. One of these is smuggling, or “kolbari”, often of common household items and medicines. Two friends, Hamid and Yasser, risk their lives on the border between Iraq and Iran to make a living.

What is at first glance a small sailboat houses a fairly large family of ecological researchers, who, 20 years ago decided to leave solid ground and live their lives on the waves of freedom.

After the 2019 fall of Omar al-Bashir’s dictatorship in Sudan, hopes of fundamental political change arise. But a military coup thwarts dreams of democracy, plunging the country into chaos and driving millions into exile.

After years of marriage, Li discovers her husband is passionately writing to a younger woman and decides to act. She’s disappointed but wants to save the marriage. She goes to Wang Zhenxi, a mistress dispeller well-known for ending extramarital affairs. Wang’s intervention in the love triangle, spanning several months, is full of subtle manipulation and funny situations that are hard to imagine in our social milieu.

Pavel “Pasha” Talankin is a popular enthusiastic Russian school teacher who likes small-town life, bad weather, and even dirty panel buildings. His life is disrupted by the war, as he, an employee of an educational institution, must become its instrument.

Russia invades Ukraine. People call emergency services in panic, not knowing what's afoot. There are explosions. Kyiv is on fire and people flee to safety. Initial shock slowly becomes daily wartime reality. Boys play soldier among burnt tanks; adults search for loved ones in mass graves. Children run to bomb shelters as if they’ve always done so. A bakery churns out bread to the rhythm of explosions.

The Colombian desert is home to the last of the Wayuú, now living in reservations on the margins of society. One of them is the ageing Georgina, whose origins and true identity are a mystery to the authorities.

Maciek and his family live on the Belarus-Poland border, where, in 2021, thousands fleeing from the Middle East and other dangerous areas are trapped. Belarus promised them free access to the EU, but Polish armed forces are forcibly returning them from the border zone.