It is difficult to be moral in an amoral world. For 20-year old Bruno, nothing has any meaning beyond what it can fetch on the open market. A penny-ante hustler living in a working-class industrial Belgian town, he thinks nothing of subletting his teenage girlfriend Sonia's apartment while she in the hospital giving birth to their baby, forcing her to live in a shelter. Seeing an opportunity for a bigger score, he sells his newborn son to the adoption black market behind Sonia's back. But Bruno finds that his latest business-as-usual act has consequences, pushing him over a line he never knew existed. Tension mounts as he sets out to undo his fateful, unspeakable deed. Naturalistic acting and location shooting with a handheld camera create a strong intimacy between character and viewer, in keeping with the directors' past as documentary makers.

How could a simple, meek, good-hearted man turn to crime and violence? The story of ordinary pizza-delivery man Hussein—inspired by a real-life incident—begins with his deadly siege at a Teheran jewelry store. In flashbacks, Hussein and a coworker friend visit a high-end jewelry store, only to be turned away. Humiliated, Hussein goes back to work, roaming silently and angrily through the dirty downtown streets and frenetic souks. At his next delivery he is harassed by police. Finally, he arrives at his last stop, a luxurious apartment building where a wealthy man invites him into his elegantly furnished penthouse so he can complain to someone about adjusting to life in Iran after living in the United States . Hussein is once again made to feel the victim of an imbalanced social system and reaches the breaking point. The nonprofessional lead actor actually works as a pizza delivery man and is a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. This film was banned in Iran by the mullahs for being too “dark” and was withdrawn from Oscar consideration.

When filming began, angry fundamentalist mobs burned the sets and threatened the director's life. With what she deemed insufficient protection from the Indian government, she finally made the movie in Sri Lanka . Why the heated reaction? The film challenges ancient Hindu customs about widowhood that declare the woman halfdead after losing her husband. In 1930s India , eight-year-old Chuyia becomes a widow before she is even able to meet her husband. She is faced with three choices: join him on his funeral pyre, marry a younger brother, or go into an Ashram (refuge) with other widows to life a life of self-denial to atone for the sin of losing her husband. Chuyia chooses the last. Her parents shave her head and bring her to a house where women of all ages sleep on the floor and beg in the streets to earn their tiny portions of rice. Young Chuyia's energy and optimism brighten their lives and cause the women to rethink their acquiescence to accepted norms. The director asserts that such widows' houses are still in operation today. Owing to its controversial nature, the film was banned in India and Pakistan . It was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Picture.

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