Porträttet

Two British brothers who are making money for their homeland are meeting buyers for opium in China. There is a police force to counter the dealers, but is not only ineffectual, but also corrupt and dealing in narcotics itself. Confronting the situation the government assigns an incognito bureaucrat to the issue. He confronts and arrests the police, but the bulk of the drugs is with the Britons.

An Israeli soldier is taken hostage by a small PLO squad in lebanon. The soldier planned to go on vacation and to fly to the world final soccer cup (mondial), he and his capturers share the love to soccer and toward the (not so happy) end a relationship is made.

A young violinist who plays at the war front decides to join his parents in Vienna after his best friend loses an arm during Serb attack.

In WW1, Captain Stanhope is the commander of a British company fighting against the Germans. The young Lieutenant Raleigh admires the older man who he knows from the prewar days. While Stanhope tries to keep up the image of an exemplary soldier, in fact he is thoroughly disillusioned and fights his despair with alcohol, all the while waiting for the signal to start the foray against the Germans. When it comes, it leads to disaster.

Seven months after the declaration of the Greco-Italian War, a volunteer nurse and a small group of confidants who take part in the Resistance, face incarceration and horrible tortures, as they refuse to betray their country.