Tickets, a portmanteau film directed by Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami and Ken Loach, centers its stories on a train journey bound to Rome. What sews together the three episodes is the capability of showing compassion toward others even in dire situation. Olmi in the first episode brings his audience into oscillating between a professor's fantasy and a crowded train. It is the sympathy to a group of refugees that gradually brings the professor back to the reality. In the second episode, Kiarostami deviates slightly from the refugees and instead depicts an obese, overbearing woman showing contempt to her assistant and train passengers. Despite of her despisable attitudes, one of the passengers is still willing to help her carry her luggage off the train after her assistant has fled off. In the final episode, Loach reveals the plight of the group of refugees, who are striving to reunite with a relative in Rome but are short of one ticket. This time, three teenage Celtic fans risking their Champions' League match and their jobs come to rescue.

• Courtesy of TrovaCinema for the poster.
• More information on Guardian Unlimited Film.
• Interview with Abbas Kiarostami.
• Interview with Abbas Kiarostami and Ken Loach
• This is the fourth film in my list of 2005 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival.