absent parent

Keiko is pretty and intelligent but her home life is not a happy one. Never having known a father's love, she develops a possessive attachment to Mr. Mazaki, the new mathematics teacher.

Sin and Illy have a plan: on a Greek island they want to get 'clean' on their own. But the intention of the two girls fails already on the way to the airport. Finally Sin realizes she has to go the way out of heroin addiction all alone.

The young calf Klara dreams of becoming a big star, and is invited to her father’s farm. The ox Mosk is a big rock star, according to her mother, which is revealed isn’t true at all.

The story of Ruby, 13, determined to grow up fast after her mother runs away to become a movie star, leaving Ruby with her hopelessly rural father.

The Comet follows 20-year-old Gustav and his search to find his father who mysteriously disappeared 12 years ago when a comet passed close to earth.

Tulgaa returns to his native village to care for his dying stepfather, honouring his remaining commitments by offering to lend a hand with the summer harvest. But upon witnessing Tulgaa’s clumsy first attempts, Tuntuulei, a sassy 10-year-old boy, takes it upon himself to school the city slicker on the grassland ways. Despite getting off on the wrong foot, the two soon find common ground and form a delicate bond that will transform their lives.

12 year old Carmen has to stay home during the summer while most other people are on holiday. She plays with younger children Anders and Kerstin. 20 year old Bengt-Olof is a little bit challenged and has no other friends of his own age. Therefore, he frightens and mobs the children in the neighbourhood who, at first try to flee him, but then begin planning their revenge...

Reared by an abusive, pill-popping mother and an absentee playboy father, six-year-old Valentina must fend for herself. She does what she can to craft the illusion of normalcy: makes herself lunches that look just like the ones her classmates tote, dresses and grooms herself expertly, and lies to cover up for her mother Anita's erratic behavior.

Despite the deep love and tenderness that exists between Franck and his older brother, the sadness and emptiness caused by his mother's absence being taken away by the police, leads him to commit a terrible and hopeless act.

In Sydney, Australia, Jason King, a security guard and a part-time ghost hunter, has spent decades searching for his absent father. When this personal endeavor crosses paths with a police investigation, an unspeakable family secret comes to light.

A young girl is forced to grow up when she runs into her absent father at the local bowling alley.

Oscar, not quite a child anymore, scavenges for scrap metal for his father. He spends his life in improvised landfills among what remains of leftovers. Worlds apart, yet close-by, there is Stanley. He tidies the church in exchange for a monetised hospitality, picks fruits, herds sheep: anything that keep his foreign body busy. Oscar, the young Sicilian, and Stanley the Nigerian don’t seem to have much in common. Except for the feeling of being thrown into the world, to suffer the same refusal, the same overwhelming wave of choices imposed on them by others.

A documentary that chronicles twin brothers searching for their absent father in faraway Russia. Having very few leads, the twin brothers – different in character and interests – are also looking for the ties that have never bound them as closely as they would have liked.

The story of a photograph: A single mother, an absent father and a child.

A different perspective on the exile and social impact of major projects such as oil sands mining in Alberta, Canada. These large-scale projects, based on economic growth, also have human costs that change the cultural face of the regions on a small or large scale. Over a six-month period, three families from the Acadian Peninsula in New Brunswick opened their doors and hearts to director Renée Blanchar and her team. A film about exile, choice of life, values, but especially absence; absence being probably the highest price to pay for each member of these families.

While playing at the beach with their grandmother, two children witness an Elvis-like man walk out of the sea. They believe he's the "fishman" lover of a female taniwha, Hine Tai. Meanwhile their parents (played by Kirk Torrance and Nancy Brunning) are busy falling apart, and the mysterious man offers words that are either wise or dangerous. Set in a small seaside town, this magical realist fable was written by Briar Grace-Smith (Cousins) and directed by Peter Burger (What Really Happened - Waitangi). It got six nominations at the 2002 NZ TV Awards, and won for Best Drama, and for James Cowley's cinematography.