Coming of age faves

Schoolboys marooned on a Pacific island create their own savage civilization.

A powerful statement against war, Barefoot Gen is a disturbing story about the effect of the atomic bomb on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.

During a long English summer in the early 1980s, two schoolboys from differing backgrounds set out to make a film inspired by First Blood (1982).

An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.

Two 12-year-old Chilean children from different social classes become friends in 1973. They both discover each other's world as political tensions in their country increase.

A Jewish family leaves Germany after surviving the Holocaust and heads to Norway. Mendel, their youngest son, is too young to make sense of the Holocaust but tries to comprehend his family's actions during the war and their nightmares now. His imagination frequently runs away from him.

A boy is left alone in a Jewish neighborhood in 1970, when the World Cup coincides with political crackdowns by the military dictatorship.

Spain, 1936. Moncho is an outcast at school but is able to form a strong bond with his outspoken teacher. When fascism arrives to Spain, his teacher is considered an enemy of the regime.

A new chief of a "Culture House" is planning to hold a terribly boring New Year concert. A group of young amateur actors are doing their best to liven up the concert.

A 9-year-old girl weathers big changes in her household as her parents become radical political activists in 1970-71 Paris.

A man whose wife has died remarries, and his new wife has a daughter of her own from a previous marriage. The man's young son, however, who loved his mother deeply and misses her terribly, resents his father's new wife, not wanting her to take the place of his beloved mother, and makes life miserable for his new stepsister..

In Afghanistan, a young girl wants to go to school and learn to read and write, but is met with hostility or indifference.

Laos. In a land ravaged by war and exploitation, a boy whose family believe he is cursed must redeem himself by taking part in a dangerous rocket competition.

Teenager David Clemens develops a hysterical fear that he will die if he comes into physical contact with another person. Perturbed, David's overbearing mother places him in a home for mentally disturbed young people.

In 1944, in Brooklyn, two Jewish kids become friends. One is from a very conservative family, and the other is more liberal. The issues of importance of tradition, parental expectations and the formation of Israel cause constant friction.

When a young woman investigates her town's Nazi past, the community turns against her.

A deaf girl, Shoko, is bullied by the popular Shoya. As Shoya continues to bully Shoko, the class turns its back on him. Shoko transfers and Shoya grows up as an outcast. Alone and depressed, the regretful Shoya finds Shoko to make amends.

Two city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy on his "walkabout": a ritual separation from his tribe.

When five orphan girls are seen innocently playing with boys on a beach, their scandalized conservative guardians confine them while forced marriages are arranged.

From opposing ethnicities, Ngabo and Sangwa are tested when old-timers warn, "Hutus and Tutsis should not be friends." An intense and inspiring portrait of youth in Rwanda, 'Munyurangabo' features Poet Laureate Edouard Uwayo delivering a moving poem about his healing country. Rwanda. Kinyarwanda with English subtitles.

On a Mississippi River island, two young boys encounter a stranger who tells wild tales about bounty hunters and a beautiful woman.

A high school slacker commits a shocking act and proceeds to let his friends in on the secret. However, the friends' reaction is almost as ambiguous and perplexing as the crime itself.

The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.

In 1951, a group of high schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied North Texas town that is slowly dying, both culturally and economically.

Gregory is a normal teen who is infatuated with a classmate. He must work to win her affection.