A la fin des années 1850, peu avant la guerre de Sécession. Alors que les États du Sud se montrent de plus en plus distants face aux directives venues de Washington, le major Ransome Callicut se rend sous une fausse identité en Californie : il doit estimer la force du mouvement sécessionniste dans cet État de l'Ouest.

Engel und Puppe is the first film by Italian filmmaker and writer Ellis Donda. Screened at Oberhausen in 1975, Engel und Puppe is a political adaptation of some lines from Rilke's Duino Elegies, featuring the French poet Jacqueline Risset and a young Rossella Or (soon to become an avant-garde theatre actress).

When the leader of a secessionist group in south-eastern Nigeria is jailed, his loyalists mandate a compulsory "sit-at-home' on Mondays in protest. Siblings Kamnonu and Ogbonna face danger when they defy the Monday restrictions.