The Magic Box

Near the turbulent end of the Edo era, a man returning to Japan after exile in America searches for his wife and becomes swept up in the current of revolution in this incisive period drama from the great Shohei Imamura.

A pious plantation owner attempts to teach Christianity to 12 of his slaves by inviting them to participate in a reenactment of the Last Supper.

The 15th century. Sent to remote Parma by the Grand Prince of Moscow, prince Yermolay tells his son Mikhail about his dream: to create a grand princedom that would unite the peoples inhabiting these lands. Soon Yermolay is killed in the battle against the rebellious local tribes, the Voguls. His heir Mikhail finds himself in the middle of two worlds - the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the ancient lands of Perm populated by pagans. Mikhail marries a local girl, Tiche, a half woman, a half lamia - a witch, a living incarnation of the main pagan symbol Golden Woman, Sorni Nai. The legend has it that whoever owns Sorni Nai, has the full control over Parma. A talented diplomate, Mikhail finds allies among the local khans. He is able to bring a fragile peace but the news about the increasingly powerful Permian Prince reaches Moscow. The Grand Prince Ivan III decides to overpower Mikhail and his allies. He intends to turn disparate Rus into a uniform and strong state, realizing that the peoples can't repel the endless invasions of the Russian lands on their own. Mikhail has a difficult choice to make: to accept the will of Moscow or to stick with the local rulers who had helped him more than once in the past and many of whom became his loyal friends. Mikhail decides to listen to his heart and not the reason and ultimately loses the battle against the Grand Prince of Moscow and with his friends and allies ends up in captivity. In the meantime, Tiche is kidnapped by Mikhail's bitter enemy Assyka who wants to regain his control over Parma, believing that Tiche the lamia is his and his alone.

In post-war Australia the men and women of Cinetone struggle to produce the weekly news reels for the movie-going public.

In pre-Revolutionary France, 16-year-old Caroline is caught in a love triangle between her father's choice, politician Georges Berthier, and the man she loves, Gaston de Sallanches, as aristocrats revel while the French Revolution begins

Film almanac based on O. Henry's short stories: "The Roads We Take", "Soul Mates", "The Chief of the Redskins". The last short story was the most popular - so hilarious were the misadventures of the hapless kidnappers of the young rascal.