The Romance of Max

A filmmaker talks about his work and love life with an unseen friend behind the camera. We also watch four of his short films.

On the edge of the Gobi desert in Northwest China, Lang returns to his hometown after being released from jail. While working for the local dog patrol team to clear the town of stray dogs before the Olympic Games, he strikes up an unlikely connection with a black dog. These two lonely souls embark on a journey together.

Simon, a well-known French filmmaker, starts shooting his next film. A story about workers fighting to protect their factory from being relocated. But nothing goes as planned... His producer Viviane wants to rewrite the ending and is threatening to cut the budget; his own crew goes on strike; his personal life is in shambles; and to make things worse, his lead actor Alain is an egocentric jerk. Joseph, an extra who wants to get into the film industry, agrees to direct the making of and shoot the behind-the-scenes. He takes his role very seriously and starts following around the crew, capturing all this mess... What follows is proof that the making of can sometimes be far better than the film itself!

The video refers to the current protests in Belarus, political struggle and state violence through the discourse of fascism. The topic of fascism and victory over it has for a long time been central to the state ideology of Belarus.

In the later part of his oeuvre, the famous Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu looks at the society of post-war Japan through family stories from the lower middle class. Arte has compiled a decalogy of 10 films from this period from the director's creative work. This short documentary film, created in this context, explains the film works using fragments of Ozu's notes, which he wrote between 1933 and 1963, elegant drawings and film clips. A fine insight into the themes and aesthetics of this moving cinema about intimacy and the passage of time and a fascinating journey into the moving final part of the Japanese master's work.

Ermus Daglek, retired Empathtek engineer, commandeers a defunct factory where he creates androids based on persons from his past and recreates a dinner party where he lost the love of his life - until they malfunction and escape.

Angélique is in a North African Muslim kingdom where she is now part of the Sultan's harem. She refuses to be bedded as her captors try to beat sense into her. She finally decides to escape with the help of two Christian prisoners.

F/X man Rollie Tyler is now a toymaker. Mike, the ex-husband of his girlfriend Kim, is a cop. He asks Rollie to help catch a killer. The operation goes well until some unknown man kills both the killer and Mike. Mike's boss, Silak says it was the killer who killed Mike but Rollie knows it wasn't. Obviously, Silak is involved with Mike's death, so he calls on Leo McCarthy, the cop from the last movie, who is now a P.I., for help and they discover it's not just Silak they have to worry about.

A beautiful blonde joins a small group of men running an oil station in the Sahara Desert and starts the emotions soaring.

The journey of a professional wrestler who becomes a small town pastor and moonlights as a masked vigilante fighting injustice. While facing crises at home and at the church, the Pastor must evade the police and somehow reconcile his violent secret identity with his calling as a pastor.

The survival instincts of a road-tripping family are put to the test when they have no other choice but to stay the night at a remote homestead.

After the end of WWII, a young Lithuanian woman and a young Italian man from Stromboli impulsively marry, but married life on the island is more demanding than she can accept.

Internet humor star Thomas the Lama gets out of hand in a video. He becomes the target of all haters and his life falls apart. To win back his girlfriend and his audience, he decides to go meet his 10 biggest detractors to see if they can say, face to face, what they write on his page - Each meeting promises to be epic.

Soon after her latest husband death, the King himself (Louis XIV) meets with our heroine and begs her to help convince the Persian Ambassador to agree to a treaty. However, what they didn't realize was that the handsome Persian was in fact a sexual sadist. So, it is up to the King's half- brother, some Hungarian prince, to save Angélique from the evil troll's clutches.

Experimental short by Anna Lajolo and Guido Lombardi.

After an argument with her younger sister, Le Ying moves out on her own. She meets a boxing trainer and starts boxing.

On a hot summer day in Oslo, the dead mysteriously awaken, and three families are thrown into chaos when their deceased loved ones come back to them. Who are they, and what do they want?

When a mentally ill young man thinks he witnesses an abduction and the police refuse to believe him, he reluctantly turns to his next door neighbor – a bitter, retired security guard – to help him find the missing woman.

From a prolific career in film and television, Anton Yelchin left an indelible legacy as an actor. Through his journals and other writings, his photography, the original music he wrote, and interviews with his family, friends, and colleagues, this film looks not just at Anton's impressive career, but at a broader portrait of the man.

With high school in the rearview, five teenagers from inland Oregon embark on one last adventure. Piling into a van with a busted tail light, their mission takes them to a place they’ve never been—the Pacific coast, five hundred miles away. Their plan, in full: “Fuck it.”