Discoveries from Portugal World Cinema

The artist NBC presents, for the first time, the short film EPílogo. Directed by Chris Costa, this work explores issues related to the role of memories in the construction of identity.

The first recorded testimony of a group of Brazilian Catholic women who, in the 1970s, embraced the emerging movement of Liberation Theology — a force that reshaped the Church in Latin America by aligning faith with social justice and the struggles of the poor under authoritarian regimes. Pressured by the Brazilian dictatorship and in conflict with Church hierarchy, they broke with the institution, took a vow of anonymity, and fled into exile in Rome, escaping aboard cargo ships. Today, the fifteen women who remain from the original group agree, for the first time, to share their story.

Lola and Elle are two design students whose friendship slowly deepens into intimacy. When Elle invites Lola home for dinner, things shift. The apartment is warm, her mother is kind, and Elle is charming. But in the basement, something waits. Something on all fours. Something Elle calls family.

Film by Henrique Oliveira

A video that appropriates the original images of ‘Scanners’ by David Cronenberg. These images were compressed and were underwent , along with the sound, a robotic and repetitive treatment, giving them a new reading.

From the testimony and personal experience of filmmaker Alberto Seixas Santos and his thoughts on the history of film, a filmic memory is rebuilt through an editing process. A dialogue between images from his films and reference to filmmakers he admires, whose films pervade this documentary like ghosts haunting reality. For the director, “the key issue with cinema, as with painting, music and art in general, is that the only works that live on are those that have taken risks”.

In the northernmost part of the Yakut Tundra, Vladik, a young Dolgan reindeer herder, stands at a crossroads: he must decide whether to follow in his fathers footsteps or join the modern mammoth tusk hunters. His father Roma, rooted in traditional beliefs, advises his son to heed the warnings of their ancestors and avoid the bad omen of unearthing mammoth remains. Driven by the financial gain of the tusk trade, Vladik gives in to the temptation and begins his journey, but at what cost to his family, heritage and the fragile ecosystem of the Tundra?

In 2000, Susana de Sousa Dias made Criminal Case 141/53, about the sisters Isaura Borges Coelho and Hortênsia Campos Lima, who resisted a 1950s’ Portuguese law that prohibited nurses from marrying. Supported by a montage of archival material, the film told their story, which was shaped by the dictatorship under Salazar. Now, a quarter of a century later, De Sousa Dias returns with a sequel that questions and reflects on her earlier film. She describes how she first encountered the archive material that led her to the sisters’ story in the early 1990s.

One fateful night, something seems to disturb the wheel of time. Death sets out to investigate this curious case...

A lost traveler decides to spend the night in the ancient castle of Óbidos and receives a visit from a strange woman.

Coverage of the effects of the floods in Constância.

The launching of the destroyer ‘Tejo’ in the river Tagus – shipyard Rocha de Conde d'Óbidos, Lisbon, with the presence of the President of the Ministers Council.

500 years ago, Cabo Verde was a paradise for seabirds. Today, the eight species that nest on the rocky slopes of these tropical islands face major challenges. From high mountains to remote and deserted islets, we follow Cape Verdean conservation teams on the ground to study and preserve the archipelago’s seabird colonies.

A land is made and created by its inhabitants and by what they do and leave behind. In Melgaço, we meet three people who share the same passion. Each one has different stories and values, but they all come together in the same place and on a four-wheeled vehicle. Thanks to this passion, every year people gather in Melgaço with the same love and the same desire to leave memories and see something old come to life.

A brief journey and a glimpse into a man's heart and his simplicity. In the mountains of Huizhou, Mr. Fang, a wise elder, craftsman, and poet, shares his world with the person behind the camera, a foreigner, from his backyard. Through deep convictions and a connection to their roots, an interaction of culture and humanity flourishes between them, organically and without barriers, inviting us to savor the essence of life's simple pleasures. This poetic documentary embodies the truth that life, in its purest form, is often found in quiet moments, celebrating profound connections that transcend language, culture, or money, and the timeless lessons of a life well-lived.

The film follows an abandoned son's search for the mother who left him. Like the final scene of Im Kwon-taek’s Gilsotteum (1986), which evokes the primal power of Korean kinship, this journey is filled with lingering images and sounds. Chronicling his travels through Japan, Portugal, and Spain, the film traces the unbreakable—if unseen—thread of blood that connects a mother and son, and extends through a scattered people.

This mockumentary explores the world of real estate agencies as it follows Sérgio Pinto, an aspiring agent who can't pay rent and whose only goal is not to sell houses, but to have a roof over his head.

Joana, a film director with an identity and career crisis, is wrapping up a documentary about Sandra, the clientless touristic guide of a very untouristic walking trail.

Autumn symbolizes the beginning of the end.

A story of obsessive love and surreal entropy between two people who surrender to absolute desire.

A short film showcasing the landscapes of Castelo Branco, Beira Alta.

Under a full sun that turns the wide pastures and woods around a house into an idyllic playground, a boy plays with his father to be a man. In the midst of the greenery, the aggressiveness is heartwarming: the father teaches him boxing and with it, the responsibility and restraint that come with mastering one's own body; the boy listens to rap and caresses chicks. Masculinity and childhood are documented in a contradictory, sweet and incautious nature. Seen in this light, the images of upbringing can convince us: love and virtue are built and transmitted in small lessons.

Manuel, a waiter, after being denied his request to leave work early to meet his girlfriend, meets his colleague José for a cigarette break, where they talk about their current situation.

After his car breaks down, Angus looks for a place to stay for the night and finds an old building. Lured by the promise of a temporary solution, he soon realizes that his stay in this hotel will not be ordinary, but full of mysteries.

Fires leave a trail of death and heavy damage in Alquerubim, Portugal.

A look at the daily life of Mimi, the front door neighbour.

Just as Christ carried his cross, Sério Fernandes carries one of his paintings between the ribeira de Gaia and the Palácio de Cristal in Porto. A journey through a dionysian and authentic “second Porto”, an “underground” Porto, a sidewalk Porto; so close and so far from that velvety and bourgeois “first Porto”...

"Porta de Expressão" begins with a shot of the stairs at the entrance to the Cineclube de Guimarães. The sound of footsteps ascending the stairs and the murmur of a small crowd fill the air, but the stairs are empty. This "phantom sound" creates an atmosphere of mystery and absence, reflecting the invisibility and silence forced by censorship. The subtle sound of the projection machine mixes with some voices that tell of the many creative ways that the film society found to circumvent censorship during the PIDE era. Among the many cinephile memories there are reports of the cultural resistance of the film club.

Short film by João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva, filmed at Lohmuehle Leustetten.

'Secrets of Nature' was a series of short films produced by the BBC in the 20s and 30s about animals, plants and our relationship to them. In 2021, and in tandem with the 'Cinema e Razão Ecológica' conference, Teresa Castro gives it a new reading in four episodes in which she explores the world of lichens, mushrooms and ruderal plants. An unprecedented mini-video series, produced by Culturgest.

There are sinuous borders in the millimetres of tension between what’s visible to the human eye and what can only be seen through the machine. Surrounded by volumes of data, dances of accurate injections and light beams, we lose track of the time spent here.

The life of Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, his roots, his artistic career and his work.

The prequel-equal-sequel to the acclaimed feature filuminium”i eye aye”.

Mika performs at the Rock In Rio festival in Lisbon, Portugal on 20 May 2016.

Azar Na Praia is a film by André Santos and Mariana Machado.

At the peak of Summer, in a realm where circuits intertwine with consciousness, Martha and David question whether a menacing algorithm conceals the whispers of spirits, blurring the boundaries between technology and ethereal existence.

A girl answers a job interview and little by little her past is revealed and called into question.

When a former basketball coach is forced by court order to come out of retirement to manage a team of players with intellectual disabilities, together they go further than they ever imagined.

Proposes a speculative meeting between the Baron of Água Izé, the first nobleman in the Portuguese colonies of the 1800s who was of mixed European and African ancestry, and Maria Correia, the Black Princess of Príncipe Island in the 1700s. Reanimating them through the bodies of contemporary artists, the film uses dance, poetry and music to weave profound threads between the past and the present. Transcending space, time and language, their encounter wrestles with questions of culpability, power and the exploitation of both land and Black bodies.

Inspired by the re-emergence of numerous cases of sexual abuse in Portugal, triggered by the Pope's visit to the country, the film makes use of artificial intelligence to return objects of chastity - originally associated with religious practices, but now adopted by fetishistic communities - to their origins, handing them back to church figures.

This film combines fictional and documentary treatment and uses photographic archives, real images and the oral testimony of women from the regions of Trás-os-Montes, Beira, Alto and Baixo Minho who, between the 1940s and 1980s, came to Porto to work as domestic servants.

An ethnofiction that accompanies a young woman who finds herself overwhelmed by the city setting out on a journey seeking refuge in the countryside.

In the year of 2095 a war of unclear motives breaks out and everyone gets drafted. After ending up alone with no news of the outside world, a young delinquent punk quickly loses all motivation to keep fighting for his country and becomes suicidal.

The community of Covas do Barroso, in northern Portugal, discovers that the British company Savannah Resources plans to build the largest open-pit lithium mine in Europe just few meters from their homes. Confronted by this imminent threat, the People decide to organize themselves and expel the company from their lands.