Under the Sun

The Takarazuka Revue is a highly successful musical theatre troupe in which all the actors are women. If they want to get married, they have to resign. The compensation is stardom and they are envied by millions of women across Japan. On stage they conjure up an impossibly romantic and glamorous world far removed from the narrow confines of housewives' and office-girls' lives. (a Twentieth-Century Vixen production for BBCtv)

Bull-racing on the Indonesian islands of Sapudi and Madura is both a test of manhood and a statement of identity. We follow two young jockeys as they prepare for the annual tournament.

Founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, France's prestigious St Cyr military school brands Frenchness into the hearts and souls of young officers using theatrical rituals and initiations, most notably a re-enactment in full period costume of the Battle of Austerlitz and the Grand Soir in which third-year students ceremonially dress the second-years in the traditional uniform of plumed hat, gloves, and epaulettes. We follow one class over the year before their graduation.

A documentary about the extraordinary sexual traditions of the Sambia people of Papua New Guinea. Boys as young as 7 are taken away from their mothers and introduced to sexual practices by their (male) warrior elders. The film follows the Sambians' initiation ritual, a closely-guarded secret being conducted probably for the last time.

In the Yellow Earth district in northern China, where houses are caves cut into the cliff terraces, two women are about to become neighbors. One, a wife and mother, is being grievously punished for having too many children. The other has just arrived to celebrate her impending wedding. (a Cicada production for BBCtv)

Aboriginal stockman Harry Dixon taught white cattleman Grant Martin to hunt and shoot and to understand the land. New laws allow Dixon to claim a plot of land, but water is scarce, and Martin is unwilling to give his old teacher his due.

Ron Huhndorf and Willie Kosiyue are at loggerheads. They are neighbouring Yupitt Indians from an isolated river delta in south-western Alaska. Ron welcomes the discovery and exploitation of oil in his settlement, while Willie is determined to halt what he sees as the destruction of tribal life. Through the contrast between the two men, we see in dramatic form the dilemmas facing Native Americans.

Thirteen-year-old Uria goes to a Catholic boarding school on the remote Mentawai islands of Indonesia. Twice a year he returns to his home deep in the forest where his father is a sorcerer. When he arrives, Uria pits his new Christian faith and his literacy against his father's ritual invocation of the spirits.

It is three years since Duka left home to marry a man she had never met, and she now has two children. Her ambitious husband Sago's aspirations to become rich are thwarted by drought, rising prices, and the never-ending demands of his grasping relatives. Meanwhile Duka's cousin is preparing for his coming of age, which requires Duka be ritually beaten until her back bleeds. But a sudden death in the family puts the ceremony in jeopardy, and Sago must find a solution.