First graders in a Tokyo public elementary school are presented with a challenge for the final semester: to form an orchestra and perform “Ode to Joy” at a school ceremony. “Instruments of a Beating Heart” examines the Japanese educational system’s tenuous balance between self-sacrifice and personal growth as it teaches the next generation to become part of society.

“Homunculus” displays the wandering of a man in quest for other men. He will realize along his travel that people see him as an “Arab”, some ambiguous, virile and powerful entity both celebrated by white gay males, and hated by French police forces.

In Kivu (Democratic Republic of Congo), one of the most violent regions in the world, a group of women arrives at Panzi Hospital after being gang-raped by the guerrillas in the area who control the mineral resources. Their psychological treatment before reintegration confronts them with the dilemma of accepting the babies they have given birth to as a result of the rapes, finding in the question of motherhood a way to resist.

Seventeen-year-old Kamila is about to leave the youth education center. As the group's leader she has been like a mother figure to the younger girls. Now, they must find their own way and find hope in the world around them.