On the Milky Road

The first of four installments in the groundbreaking Heartbeat of the World anthology film series. Comprised of several short films by some of the world's most exciting directors, Words with Gods follows the theme of religion - specifically as it relates to an individual's relationship with his/her god or gods...or the lack thereof. In Words with Gods, each director recounts a narrative centered around human fragility, as well as environmental and cultural crises involving specific religions with which each has a personal relationship; including early Aboriginal Spirituality, Umbanda, Buddhism, the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, and Atheism. An animated sequence by Mexican animator Maribel Martinez is woven through each of the film segments, with each segment narratively connected as a feature-length film.

A program of short films from some of the cinema's greatest diectors. Curated by Emir Kusturica and Stephen Frears. - George Lucas "1.42.08 to Qualify" (1966) - Ridley Scott "A Boy and a Bicycle" (1965) - Robert Zemeckis "The Lift" (1972) - Tony Scott "One of the Missing" (1969) - Emir Kusturica "Guernica" (1978) - Luc Besson "L'avant dernier" (1981) - Lars von Trier "Nocturne" (1980) - Terry Gilliam "Storytime" (1968) - Paul Verhoeven "A Lizzard Too Much" (1960) - Roman Polanski "Le gros et le maigre" (1960) - Jane Campion "Peel" (1982) - Stephen Frears "The Burning" (1967)

Set during the Bosnian war in the early 1990s, Luka is a mild-mannered railway clerk whose life is turned upside down, not just by the outbreak of the war, but when his wife runs off with a local musician. Then Luka's son is conscripted and eventually captured in the fighting. To recover his son, Luka is commanded to guard a pretty young Muslim nurse who will be used in a hostage swapping operation.

Tito's break-up with Stalin in 1948 marked the beginning of not only confusing, but also very dangerous years for many hard-core Yugoslav communists. A careless remark about the newspaper cartoon is enough for Mesha to join many arrested unfortunates. His family is now forced to cope with the situation and wait for his release from prison.

El Pepe, una vida suprema is a documentary on the life of Uruguayan politician and former guerrilla fighter José Mujica.

Jelena, a woman of character, rules an inn in an isolated place in the countryside. She lives with her two sons: Martin and Jakov. Martin has been married to Kata for 5 years, but never succeeded in having a child. Jakov sleeps with his mother in postures suggesting incest, but he is in love with Kata. Each night he hears her cries, the sexual acts with her husband inevitably finish with violence. One day, Jakov can't stand anymore, he leaves, and Kata is found dead the next morning. Two characters arrive then : an old man, who turns to be the father of Martin ; he settles and declares being returned to die here. And a girl, that Martin will keep as his new wife.

Seven short films - each one focused on the plight of a different child protagonist.

An old man named Zivojin Markovic, living in a remote village prays for his grandson Cane to go to the city, sell his cow and bring back a wife. In the city he is supposed to meet up with his grandfather's stepbrother, but this man is dead. Instead, he meets this man's two grandsons, two good-natured brothers who are nevertheless small-time criminals and experts in demolition. Cane soon clicks with these men, and also falls in love with a schoolgirl (Jasna), who he wants to marry as part of his testament with his grandfather. He gets involved in this girl's family affairs, rescuing both her and her mother from prostitution and gangsters headed by a man called Bajo, and the new group of people return to the small village in time to celebrate Zivojin's wedding to his neighbor, despite the gangsters' best efforts to stop the celebration, which results in a double wedding.

A young man grows up in Sarajevo in the 1960s, under the shadow of his good, but ailing father, and gets attracted by the world of small-time criminals.