My top 25 of SIFF 2010

In 1937, Japan occupied Nanjing, the Chinese capital. There was a battle and subsequent atrocities against the inhabitants, especially those who took refuge in the International Security Zone.

An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.

A failed suicide attempt leads a heartbroken man to live a life in the wilderness.

A love story takes place over the course of one evening in Taipei.

Young people struggle to do things their way in the 1950s.

Umay is a young woman of Turkish descent, fighting for an independent and self-determined life in Germany against her family's resistance. Her struggle initiates a dynamic that results in a life-threatening situation.

For a rich upper-class family locked into their own little world, Bolivia's social changes threaten to burst their bubble.

The story of two men on different sides of a prison riot -- the inmate leading the rebellion and the young guard trapped in the revolt, who poses as a prisoner in a desperate attempt to survive the ordeal.

The true story of the border town of Juarez, Mexico where since the mid-1990s thousands of women have gone missing or turned up as sun-burnt corpses in the desert. Can new police captain Blanca Bravo stop the savagery?

The French intelligence service alerts the U.S. about a Soviet spy operation during the height of the Cold War, which sets off an unfortunate chain of events.

Two sisters whose family moves to Taiwan after their father fights in the civil war against the communists in mainland China, find their lives turned upside-down after their parents are thrown into jail and accused of being spies.

The story of Javier, a 15 year old Argentinian who is forced to leave for Mexico after the disappearance of his older brother.

A former war photographer and her physician husband are caught up in a riot when locals in an Andean village vent their unhappiness with contamination from a nearby mine.

A heartwarming tale about a beloved father who is trying to cope with cultural clashes, loss and the search for love in average Swedish society.

Financial concerns tempt a security guard to return to his smuggling ways.

Ibrahim left his family to try his luck in Tehran. But in this asphalt jungle where everything can be bought and sold a dream can easily become a nightmare. Involved into the traffic of new-born children, Ibrahim plunges into the city seedy areas, in Tehroun. This film noir gives a caustic portrait of modern Iran.

Diyarbakir, in the late nineties: Two young Kurdish children are forced to live on the street after their parents have been murdered by a member of a secret state security force.

The life of a determined young girl is changed when she befriends her building's concierge, a solitary woman who is more than what she seems.

A woman gets entangled in a series of bizarre lies in order to take care of herself and her 12-year-old son.

A Montreal high school student who believes he is the reincarnation of Lev Trotskiy starts a revolution against apathy among his fellow students.

After being dumped by Philip, her one true love, the infatuated Nessa enrolls at his private school in the hopes of winning him back.

A story about women, set in the present and in 1950s Warsaw. The main character is Sabina, a quiet, shy woman who has just turned thirty. Clearly, she lacks a man in her life. Her mother knows all about it and tries at all costs to find her daughter a good candidate for a husband. The whole situation is controlled by the grandmother, an eccentric lady with a sharp tongue from whom no secret can be concealed. Successive admirers arrive at the pre-war tenement where the women live, but Sabina is interested in none of them. One day, appearing out of nowhere, comes the charming, intelligent, and terribly good-looking Bronislaw. His presence will spark off a series of unexpected events revealing the darker side of the women's nature.

A biography of Ian Dury, who was stricken with polio at a young age and defied expectations by becoming one of the founders of the punk-rock scene in Britain in the 1970s.

Daniel - a recent university graduate with Down's Syndrome - falls in love on his first day at work in the Department of Social Services. Laura is an outsider who spends her nights in the city's crowded clubs and singles' bars, escaping her problems in the arms of total strangers. Yet despite their apparent incompatibility, the two strike up a moving, bittersweet friendship that touches them both and eventually sets them on the road to happiness.

The story of Bruno, a rough, heavy man overly fond of drinking. His only desire is to be a normal person, but fate would have it otherwise. One day he wakens to find that his hands are starting to bleed, marking the start of a journey of redemption through suffering, pain and death. From now on he'll have to live with his new stigmata.