The Great Match tells the adventurous story of three soccer fans, none of whom have ever met, but who nevertheless have two things in common: first, they all live in the farthest-flung corners of the planet and, second, they are all determined to watch the TV broadcast of the 2002 World Cup final between Germany and Brazil. The protagonists in this “global” comedy are a family of Mongolian nomads, a camel caravan of Tuareg in the Sahara, and a group of Indios in the Amazon. They all live 300 miles away from the next town—and the next television—making their task a particularly daunting one. Nevertheless, these inventive people possess the resourcefulness and the willpower to achieve their goal

Madeinusa is a girl aged 14 with a sweet Indian face who lives in an isolated village in the Cordillera Blanca Mountain range of Peru. This strange place is characterized by its religious fervor. From Good Friday at three o’clock in the afternoon (the time of day when Christ died on the cross) to Easter Sunday, the whole village can do whatever it feels like. During the two holy days, sin does not exist: God is dead and can’t see what is happening. Everything is accepted and allowed, without remorse. Year after year, Madeinusa, her sister Chale, and her father Don Cayo—the Mayor and local big shot—maintain this tradition without questioning it. However, everything changes with the arrival in the village of Salvador, a young geologist from Lima, who will unknowingly change Madeinusa’s destiny.

Forty-year-old Andreas arrives in a strange city with no memory of how he got there. He is presented with a job, an apartment—even a wife. But before long, Andreas notices that something is wrong. The people around him seem cut off from any real emotion, and communicate only in superficialities. The ominous “Caretakers,” who make sure the city runs smoothly, keep a close watch over Andreas when they realize he doesn’t fit in. Andreas makes an attempt to escape the city, or his life, but he discovers there’s no way out—not even suicide. Then Andreas meets Hugo, who has the same longings as himself. Hugo has found a crack in the wall in his cellar from which beautiful music streams out. In hopes that the crack leads to “the other side,” Andreas and Hugo hatch a new plan of escape.

In a tale akin to Romeo and Juliet, the friendship between two children is threatened by their parents’ differences. Malú is from an upper-class family, and her single mother does not want her to play with Jorgito, because she thinks his background is coarse and commonplace. Jorgito’s mother, a poor socialist proud of her family’s social standing, places similar restrictions on her son. What neither woman recognizes is the immense strength of the bond between Malú and Jorgito. When the children learn that Malú’s mother is planning to leave Cuba, they decide to travel to the other side of the island to find Malú’s father and persuade him against signing the forms that would allow it

Somewhere in Northern Russia in a small Russian Orthodox monastery lives a very unusual man. His fellow monks are confused by his bizarre conduct. Those who visit the island believe that the man has the power to heal, exorcise demons and foretell the future. However, he considers himself unworthy because of a sin he committed in his youth. The film is a parable, combining the realities of Russian everyday life with monastic ritual and routine