Beate Kopp

Nara, a 30-year-old gypsy, lives with her nine-year-old daughter Zorka and her grandmother in a public housing project in the Paris region.

Guillaume has made it: A machine that can clean dirty air by simply sucking all dirt into air balloons and then shipping them far far away so his explanation. Some Japanese business guys, after dinner with a lot of alcohol, order 5,000 pieces. His only problem: His production capacity is way to small so he gets to produce the machines in his private house. His wife Bernadette is far from being happy about it. Her private life goes down the line so she decides to leave Guillaume and to finally have revenge she candidates for major against her husband...

Sebastien Grenier, a former French spy, is working as a financial analyst in Zurich. However, his peaceful existence starts to disintegrate when he is recruited by a top French intelligence operative to discover how one of their own secret agents was found out and executed in broad daylight.

Claire's handbag is stolen. It contained a letter written ten years previously by the man who is now the French President. In the letter, he urges his pregnant mistress to have an abortion. Claire immediately alerts the President's men. From that moment, the machinery of state swings into action.

Tommy, 22 years old, is broke and in debt, still lives with his parents and is constantly arguing with his father. The young man wants to break out of this life and believes he has finally found the opportunity to do so. A job advertisement promising 400 marks a week seems tailor-made for him. He quickly makes the acquaintance of a pusher column run by Kalle. But Tommy's ideas of a free life are soon nipped in the bud: He works more than 12 hours a day, goes from door to door to sell magazine subscriptions, lives in a filthy shared room, experiences psychological violence. He leads a life like a slave. How can he get out of this hopeless situation?

Edouard is patriarch of a large family: his second wife, Jeanne, has just had a baby and finally had enough of his philandering. As the marriage between them unravels, Edouard's daughters experience their own emotional shock waves. Dina, in a relationship with playwright Paul, wants more from her daily life, while Sidone is married to a fellow musician but is terrified of performing in public. Fast-forward seven years: Edouard is gravely ill, and the family shares their issues, hopes and fears.

A disgruntled scientist is fired from his job; slipping into madness, he invents a machine which harnesses the airwaves and can shoot people through the TV screen.

Lulu models for a young painter who tries to seduce her. When her husband enters the room he dies from a heart attack. Lulu marries the painter, who commits suicide when he finds out that she has been having a long standing affair with Dr Schon and whose son gives her a job. Lulu kills Dr Schon and goes to London to live with his son. Eventually, she becomes a prostitute and dies a victim of Jack the Ripper.

Five more-or-less distinct sections, all featuring "Freak" Orlando, a woman played by the late Magdalena Montezuma, who appears in various guises and deformities throughout.

A story of political imprisonment set in a mental hospital where the Stalin state police placed whoever their opponents were.

An African-American GI retires from the US Army in West Berlin to live with his white girlfriend, who already has a baby with another black man. After an argument with her family, she deserts him as well. Despite finding a job and a new place to live, he keeps running into racism, which also manifests itself in sexual intimidation.