'The Disciple' to 'Pieces of a Woman': Films chasing top prize at Venice Film Festival

Here are the films running for The Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Director Chaitanya Tamhane tells the story of Sharad, chasing his dream of becoming an Indian classical vocalist amid the chaos of life in the sprawling metropolis of Mumbai. 
 

Five sisters in Palermo reminisce, quibble and recount secrets as they reunite at a family funeral in Emma Dante's film.

In Mona Fastwold's upstate 19th century New York, Abigail (Katherine Waterston) tends a farm with her husband (Casey Affleck) but falls in love with a neighbour.
 

A dystopian film from Michel Franco depicts social and economic disparity in Mexico, as a well-to-do family seeks to escape the chaos of daily life.

Nicole Garcia's film tells the story of Lisa and Simon, lovers who paths cross again three years after Simon fled Paris.

Five women's stories interweave in the course of one night at a Haifa club. As one of the few spaces where Israelis and Palestinians can mingle, director Amos Gitai turns the venue itself into a protagonist.

Based on the true story of a 1962 labour strike in Novocherkassk, USSR, in which 26 protesters were shot by Soviet troops. Andrei Konchalosky's film retells events kept secret until the 1990s

Against the backdrop of a looming World War II and the invasion of Manchuria, a wife's love for her Kobe merchant husband is tested when another woman enters the picture in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's film.

Ali and his friends work small jobs and hustle to support their families. Majid Majidi's film explores what happens when Ali learns of an underground treasure. 

Martha and Sean (Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf) are a Boston couple whose baby dies during a home birth. Director Kornel Mundruczo shows how grieving Martha navigates her relationships with her husband and mother (Ellen Burstyn), while facing the midwife (Molly Parker) in court.

Susanna Nicchiarelli tells the story of Eleanor, the youngest daughter of Karl Marx, who battled for the rights of workers and women and the abolition of child labour.
 

The life of 10-year-old Valerio is turned upside down when he and his mother witness a terrorist attack against his father. But director Claudio Noce explores how a chance encounter with a rebellious boy changes their lives.

Shot over three years on the borders of Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria and Lebanon, Gianfranco Rosi's documentary follows people trying to cobble together an existence despite the violence around them.