The Trouble with Being Born

Haunted by the memory of a lost love, a reclusive man isolates himself in a decaying estate with his sister and dog — but as grief hollows him out, strange swine-like creatures emerge from a pit on the grounds, and the world around him begins to slip into something vast, ancient, and terrifyingly unknowable.

A lesbian with commitment issues befriends a widowed mother who is visiting her workaholic daughter.

Aurelio Saravia is a powerful politician who holds office in Uruguay in the mid-1960's. When Aurelio's mistress kills herself, he adopts their illegitimate daughter Masangeles despite the stern objections of his wife Aurora. Masangeles finds herself growing up in a home ruled by a corrupt and self-centered tyrant and his manic colleagues while Uruguay teeters on the brink of civil war as bands of revolutionaries battle government militias. When she turns fourteen, Masangeles discovers a secret passageway in their home that leads to sanctuary in a nearby church which also serves as a storehouse for guns and ill-gotten cash. Teenage Masangeles falls in love with Santiago, her stepbrother who has joined the rebels fighting against the state, and she persuades him to take her virginity.

Vadim, a part-time dump truck driver in Leningrad, picks up an extremely young woman, along with a newborn baby. Vadim is forced to spend the rest of his day with Anna, helping her untangle herself from unpleasant, dramatic, and even tragic situations – and she and she alone is to blame for all of them. The baby, which Anna stole in order to make an impression on an estranged lover, is finally returned to its parents, but the problems that the theft caused remain.

In Georgia during WWII Zurikela, an orphan boy, meets Khatia, a blind girl, and vows to help her to see again.