Justin Macaputol

Angelica Blanche Salva

Marcus Iñigo Sacayan

Cyrus Ignatius Ocoma

Alexa Nicole Jemenos

Amidst a strong typhoon in 1978, during the martial law era in the Philippines, college friends and protesters, Luis and Angelica, find shelter in an abandoned house after a rally dispersal. With police forces lingering outside, the raging storm, and a single candle lighting their small refuge, they find an old, dusty chessboard.

In the beginning of the 19th century, Johannes Elias Alder is born in a small village in the Austrian mountains. While growing up he is considered strange by the other villagers and discovers his love of music, especially rebuilding and playing the organ at the village church. After experiencing an "acoustic wonder", his eye color changes and he can hear even the most subtle sounds.

A young man prefers to play chess rather than taking a swim. Only by moonlight does he go for a swim alone. Or so he thinks.

Quizz West is conscripted into the United States Army in late 1940. Prior to being shipped out first to San Francisco, then the Philippines, Quizz and his hometown girlfriend Janet discuss their future plans.

The plot revolves around three men waiting to be deported in a prison. To escape the monotony, they form chess pieces from their bread rations, with which they then play against each other. Grünstein, a Polish Jew, proves to be a real talent, because although he is a beginner, he manages to defeat even the experienced player Lodeck, a German sailor, with his "Grünstein Variant".

In a place in northern Chile where oral tradition, myths and history are mixed in a single mysterious universe, four stories take place surrounded by emotion, music and local identity.

In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past. Some are just seconds long, none longer than a couple of minutes. A young woman remembers a fantasy honeymoon with a rock guitarist. A man awakes from a dream about bomber planes. A businessman boasts about success while being robbed by a pickpocket, and so on. The absurdist collection is accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music.

In order to stop the annual flooding, a dam is to be built in the mountain valley; a life-threatening undertaking for the inhabitants.