The Elephant and the Butterfly

Six poems written by six young prisoners animated to tell their stories, thoughts, fears and hopes.

When a young boy makes a wish at a carnival machine to be big, he wakes up the following morning to find that it has been granted and his body has grown older overnight, but he is still the same 13-year-old boy inside. Now he must learn how to cope with the unfamiliar world of grown-ups, including getting a job and having his first romantic encounter with a woman.

Five young Europeans (German, English, and Irish) try to find answers to life's questions in India and Thailand.

After her much older husband forces a move to a suburban retirement community, Pippa Lee engages in a period of reflection and finds herself heading toward a quiet nervous breakdown.

Aboard a spaceship where souls of the deceased are readied for reincarnation, a lone crew member's rigid existence is disrupted by a spry new assistant.

Eriko married the heir of a businessman and was living happily ever after. One day, even though it was Sunday, her husband Yoshiki went to work. She became curious about a photo book published by her brother-in-law Kensaku that her husband had left behind. Eriko was secretly worried about Kensaku's threats...

A woman is assaulted on a train, later becoming a model for an artist.

Fifteen-year-old Sarah has returned to Colmar, where she has taken up high-performance figure skating and competition. The rivalry between the girls and the trainer's harsh words put her body to the test on the ice, while her adolescent desires distract her from her athletic ambitions.

Yuko lost her husband in an accident. On that day, her sister-in-law Masako, who had come from her hometown, and they held a memorial service for her husband on the 49th day. Yuko, who broke up with her girlfriend Masako and was left alone, happened to meet her friend Yumiko from her school days on the street. The two had previously had a lesbian relationship...

Toshiko lives with an older man, Shozo. On her back was a tattoo of Hannya carved by Shozo. Her tattoo artist, Shozo, who inherited the blood of her masters, tattooed her in order to keep her in her hands. He is currently traveling to Europe because a foreigner asked him to tattoo him. Asako and Shinji, who live in the room next to Toshiko, are student lovers, but when Asako finds out that she's cheating on her, she goes to her girlfriend's Masao. After hearing about her situation, Toshiko puts Asako to sleep when he comes to retrieve her belongings and tattoos a dragon on her secret spot, but...

Ikuko, a teacher at a part-time high school, is tied up by three men in the physical education club's equipment storage area in the basement. Her husband, Ichiro, works as a private tutor, but he continues to have an affair with her former student Toshiko. Ikuko was informed of her husband's affair by her student Inoue, and she was also told that she was one of the people Inoue had sex with. She was then invited to the basement of the school, where she was asked to listen to her concerns. Two of Inoue's friends are also waiting in the basement, but Ikuko is secretly planning something...

Hideki is a freelance photographer. His wife Eiko is a beautiful woman who looks good in Japanese clothes. The person who arranged their marriage was Yumiko, a widow and secretary of Hideki's family who came from a prestigious family. In reality, Hideki is impossible. Yumiko knew this and secretly told her girlfriend Eiko to marry her. When Eiko learned of this fact, she tried to leave her house, but Yumiko stopped her, grabbed her, pushed her onto the sofa, intertwined their bodies with her, and caressed her relentlessly.

Yuki entered the Azusa family's second wife on her fourth day. Makio Azusa was not only a successful businessman, but also energetic towards women. There were several women outside who were not satisfied with holding young Yuki every night. That day, I ran to the woman without having breakfast. Of course, Yuki and her family called it work. Just that day, Shinichi, the son of the herdsman's wife, arrived. Previously, when Shinichi came back to this house, Yuki felt someone staring at her through the glass while she was taking a shower. Shinichi was peeking through the slightly opened gap...

During his rehabilitation in a municipal swimming pool, a man has to learn how to cope with his new body though he is not ready to accept it. The physiotherapist accompanying him will try to bridge the distance that the man maintains both with his body and the swimming pool environment.

A very skilful young architect from Berlin, Lea Winter, who has a promising career, is pregnant with Klaus Arnheim, her head of department, a long-time lover but married and father of a family. At the announcement of this unexpected pregnancy, of course, he only envisages abortion for Lea. However, the young woman hesitates. On the advice of her gynecologist, she decides to leave Ireland for a few days to think and make a decision without any pressure. She finds there a simple, authentic life and is confronted with another rhythm of life, with other values and with herself.

Events take place in an isolated mountaineous village where a rabid dog bites the son of Fatime. The woman has to decide where to take her son, to the doctor or to Aunt Remja, an old woman who practices magic.

An alliance of evil-doers, led by Frieda, looks to take over Fairy Tale Land. But when Ella realizes her stepmother is out to ruin her storybook existence, she takes a dramatic turn and blossoms into the leader of the resistance effort.

Jackie and Ben move into a luxurious new home in the affluent neighborhood of Verdana Hills. They are immediately welcomed and befriended by their sexy new neighbor Lizelle and invited to a pool party to meet the rest of the neighbors in the complex. After meeting Lizelle’s husband Lorenzo at the pool gathering, Ben is invited and told about a “sexual card game” that allows everyone in the complex to discard their marital inhibitions. Soon both Jackie and Ben are pulled into a world of swingers and lurid sex that threatens the very fibers of their relationship.

Elena Gallenti is an anthropology graduate student struggling to complete her thesis on 'modern means of communication.' All that changes when she meets her new boyfriend's teenage kids, who are going through their own journeys of self-discovery. All of them learn to navigate love and intimacy in the digital age.

Based on the 1931 novel To levende og en død by Sigurd Christiansen. A post office worker is left wrestling with his conscience following a robbery at his workplace.