A playful ritual or a cruel game? A girl is innocently waiting for the school bus. A moment later, a man bundles her into a passing car where his accomplices, the "grooms" are already sitting. "I don't want to be late for school", the girl shouts. "Your classes are over", the man answers. In the former Soviet Republic of Kyrgyzstan, bride kidnapping is a common way for men to get married when they are not rich enough to pay the typically very high dowries.

The abducted woman is dragged by the groom and several friends into a house where the mother-in-law-to-be is already waiting with a veil. She throws the veil over the girl's head, like you would catch a butterfly in a net. A delegation is then sent to the girl's family to inform them of the abduction. The family usually give their consent to the marriage. The only way out of it is if the girl manages to escape from the kidnapper's house. He will then set out to look for a new girl to abduct.

Although bride kidnapping has been officially forbidden in Kyrgyzstan since 1994, it has increased since the country's independence due to increasing poverty. When they cannot afford the price asked by a girl's family, many men choose kidnapping instead. Director Petr Lom is the first to ever document this custom. In his impressive debut film he follows the dramatic stories of four bride kidnappings.

Power cuts, propaganda, indoctrination and group exercise sessions are just a few of the day to day occurrences for Hong Son Wei, a seamstress, living in North Korea. This film has no accompanying narration and needs none. Naturally all filming was subject to the strictest controls of the North Korean regime, any attempt to portray any negative elements would have been censored. Therefore, the picture that emerges of daily life under the 'benign' gaze of the beloved Leader Kim Yong II is the acceptable face of the country that it wishes to present to the outside world. It is precisely this that makes the film all the more fascinating.

Any glimpse into a country as notoriously secretive as this one is rare. But for your average western viewer, the song Son Wei and her daughter sing on the way to nursery - a little tune vilifying the Americans, the way the daughter is told she needs the love of the leader in order to grow just as plants need the sun, and the way nobody knows what the word internet means in her son's English class, are just some of the more absurd and alarming interludes. The culture of self criticism, that causes the brigade leader at the factory to blame herself for not producing her quota of coats, re-enforces the idea of a society that is totally alien and full of contradictions.