A mother whose child is taken by Death, forces her on a desperate journey to get it back, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's famous fairy tale.

Time and again a man will stand before a hardware store window eyeing the tools arrayed behind the glass; his mouth will water; he will go in and hand over $2.65 for a perfectly special kind of wrench; and probably he will never, never, use it for anything. -Walker Evans

In the '40s Howard Hawks boasts that he can make a movie out of the worst thing Hemingway ever has written. When Hemingway asks, which novel he means, Hawks says To Have and Have Not. Jules Furthman writes a script, which follows the book closely. The location of the story is Cuba, but the US Government is against depicting corruption and violence on Cuba, and threatens to withdraw the film's export license. William Faulkner rewrites the script, and relocates the story to Martinique. Hawks's wife, Nancy Slim Gross, happens to see a young model at the cover of the magazine Harper's Bazaar, and shows it to her husband. Hawks is a star-maker, who likes to discover and nurture new talents. After a screen test, he chooses the 19-year-old model as the lead actress opposite Humphrey Bogart. She changes her name from Betty Perske to Lauren Bacall. At the first takes she is so nervous that she shakes.

In the early 1980s, at the beginning of what would become a 12-year-long civil war, El Salvador's talented football team was one national institution upon which both the left and the right could agree. When the team pulled off a stunning 1-0 upset against Mexico and qualified to compete in the 1982 World Cup, it was a high point for the tiny country's national pride. Unfortunately, the team's Cinderella story devolved into a nightmarish farce.

After the Sino-India war, a highly trained Indian spy enters Pakistan on a mission to gather crucial intelligence and stop Pakistan from launching an attack against India. Will he succeed?

Abril, a rebellious and daring stewardess, and Manuel, a shy and traditional businessman, meet on a plane and instantly feel an undeniable attraction.

Alan is a Seattle college student volunteering at a crisis center. One night when at the clinic alone, a woman calls up the number and tells Alan that she needs to talk to someone. She informs Alan she took a load of pills, and he secretly tries to get help. During this time, he learns more about the woman, her family life, and why she wants to die. Can Alan get the cavalry to save her in time before it's too late?

This story takes place in a fishing and wood cutting village next to the Changde mountain in Hunan. In the village, there was a woodcutter named Liu Hai. He was a steadfast woodcutter and lived with his mother. He made a living by wood cutting and collecting Chinese herbs. However, what the villagers and the Liu family didn’t realize was the luffa well in the house of Liu family was not an ordinary well.

At a farmhouse, a large family cooks mountains of food for the next day's engagement party for Silvia and her city fiancé, Angelo. Her parents feud about infidelity; an aging salesman who rents a cottage from them arrives with a young French woman; in Bologna, Angelo's mother frets that her son is marrying beneath him; his sisters are less critical. Early the next morning, the four of them go by train to the farmhouse, joined by Angelo's married, unpregnant sister. The day-long dinner is riotous, couples display affection and impatience, children chase angels. Angelo's family stays the night, and his sister Linda has a visitor. A silver elephant makes the perfect gift.

The story of fish-monger Nino of Rione Borgo. Nino is in love with Rosa but he always manages to postpone their wedding.