Discoveries from Portugal World Cinema

Xavier, a village boy, falls for Laura, neighbor's granddaughter who visits her grandfather annually. Despite flirting at summer dances, Xavier believes he has no chance with her.

An insight into the life and work of celebrated painter Paula Rego directed by her son, the film maker Nick Willing. Notoriously private and guarded, Rego opens up for the first time surprising her son with secrets and stories of her unique life, battling fascism, a misogynistic art world and depression.

The apparition of a bloodstain reaffirms the relentless cycle of life, filmed in all its fragility and complexity.

Using video assist recorded images, Antecâmara is about the “act” of shooting, the physical reality and ritual energy of two film crews during the preparation for a shot. The first video assist rule is that the image one sees in it has to be more interesting than what one sees outside. Nothing is left to chance. It helps to preview the shot, organise space, arrange the scenes, move the actors and light the set. And it provides it all with a meaning depending on how the camera is used. It is the space-time before the shot, where it is sketched.

Follows Dan, a young Venezuelan man currently living in Lisbon, who collects magic mushrooms in the forest and distributes them in the city to those in need of help – like a New Age Robin Hood – using pigeons as carriers.

A love story between a failed musician and a girl in a dinosaur costume.

Portugal, 2013, election day. The 'Troika' and the IMF have ruined the country. A patriot man will make a difference. Even if against...everyone.

A fraud in a labor cause is discovered, but nothing like a good deal in Brazil. With Justice, with the market, with everything.

The film deals with the story of smugglers operating in the border areas of northern Portugal. A group of smugglers who escaped police installed in a village to have a quiet life, but facing hard times have to go back to smuggling.

Modern technology confronts ancient ritual in this profound and moving documentary. Teenager Chris Apassingok and his Yupik family live in Gambell, Alaska, a tiny village on St. Lawrence island in the Bering Sea. Life there differs vastly from the rest of the US – for one, hunting whales holds the key to the islanders’ survival. Conflict emerges after Chris kills a whale that will feed Gambell’s townspeople for months – and news of the successful hunt reaches the outside world. Facebook trolls and animal-rights activists attack from afar, captured in Pete Chelkowski and environmental journalist Jim Wickens’ captivating film that delves into environmental issues, cultural and generational challenges, and cyberspace hysteria

In a reality where the common goal is to find one’s freedom, lives a peculiar man who hasn’t yet fulfilled that wish. He feels trapped despite having flight as his biggest ambition.

Maria, an executive from Oporto, lives in the search of the right man for her. On the other hand, her two friends, Joana, a doctor that has fallen in love to a co-worker, and Isilda, a hairdresser with an open hart and an adventurous spirit, seem to be happy with their lives. One day though, everything changes. Maria is forced to take care of her father, victim of a brain accident. During these days of turbulence, Maria thinks she has found the perfect man, a mysterious Star, an habitué of chat channels on the Internet. The three friends find out that cense of humour can be the key for a happy life. Internet, romance, a bachelor party; marriage, dates and some adventures are Loving Maria. A film where love shows himself with the most different looks. Love arrives when you don't expect it and goes away when you think it is safe. It can even appear in the light of a mobile computer.

Egas Moniz, a man marked by perseverance and ambition. Audacious and in dissonance with a country full of “narrow-minded” people, Egas Moniz faced everyone so as to impose his scientific ideas, for which he was awarded, at a quite advanced stage of his life, the much-desired Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1949.

João arrives in a city unknown to him to replace his father in the visits to his hospitalized mother. He discovers that he will have to sleep in the car at the same time he finds out that his parents are counting on him in the adult life that is also his.

Sofia grew up taking refuge in the river of the village where her grandmother, Salomé, lives. The lightness of summers spent swimming comes to an abrupt end with Salomé's death. Sofia returns to an empty home that is nothing more than a reminder of old routines and mismatched ways of showing love. But, led by the memory of a moment of courage long gone, she is confronted with a final encounter in the night.

In an ominous Lisbon courtyard where the last executioner of the kingdom once lived, an accident is waiting to happen. After a patient game of who's observing who, four characters will collide with dire consequences. Inspired by the novel The Damned Yard by Nobel Prize-winning Bosnian writer Ivo Andrić, this is a masterclass in slow cinema, a pure 16mm cinematic pleasure by André Gil Mata.

Felizbela loves her husband with obsessive intensity, surrounding him with an explosive mix of passion and jealousy that will inevitably turn into hatred. To keep his attention, she stops at nothing, enduring suffering and humiliation in an attempt to win back his love. But Messias can barely conceal his growing disillusionment with life and his unspoken contempt for his wife. One day, Bárbara — Felizbela’s fragile and rebellious niece — bursts into their lives and upsets the balance: her cousin, her aunt, and above all Messias, who finally allows himself to be carried away by his emotions. Felizbela, however, refuses to give in — and will do whatever it takes to save her family.

Two young brothers find a dead body while walking through the forest. This discovery will start a chain of events that will change their lives forever.

A documentary film about football career of Dejan Rambo Petković, who was a star of Brasileirão - Brasilian football league.

An authentic and convincing story of a small boy, son of a disrupted young couple, with all the typical hostile reactions about his mother's new love relationship and a behavior showing a mixture of love and resentment towards her, ending in a curious and somewhat moving friendship between the child and a Russian migrant worker who in a certain way replaces his estranged father.

Isaías never heard about quantum mechanics or parallel universes. One night his reality perception will be irredeemably changed.

Julian Nakaura, a priest of the Society of Jesus, was one of four young ambassadors sent to Rome by the Jesuits in 1582, as proof that Japan had converted to Christianity. Fifty years after the mission, which so fascinated European royalty, Julian was forced again to prove his faith, only this time before a Shogun, who wanted to force him to abandon his religion. Julian resists, as does Miguel Chijiwa, a fellow at the embassy to Rome, who become a martyr. Betrayed by Cristóvão Ferreira, who cannot bear the torture, Julian suffers an inglorious death ... or maybe not. All the while, a woman wants to discover her past...

Get to know the protected territories, created to preserve the forest, the conservation units. Find out how they work, the benefits they generate and the difficulties they face in fulfilling their mission to keep the Amazon standing. Also, learn about some activities that are already done by residents to generate income in a sustainable way. Based on audit coordinated by TCU.

Luís - ex-student in Lisbon and ex-combatant in Africa - finds, after returning, Maria, secretary who has a relationship with António. He lives in a palace with his children, two old aunts and a Dominican friar, a former missionary.

This Portuguese movie directed by João Botelho, is part of The Four Elements series. This is the second episode, The Air.

A sentimental comedy about... toothpicks. The hero manufactures and exchanges toothpicks for countless goods because he ignores the value of money. "The Millionaire" is his nickname. He runs around the city, happy, meeting friends: Carlitos, the newsboy, and Celeste, the lemon seller. His innocent life contrasts with the city, full of traps and dangers.

Jorge, a very shy young man, works as bellboy in a Lisbon hotel and lives in a guesthouse where he is constantly harassed by the owner’s daughter. As he tries to resist her charms, the boy dreams of one thing only: to incarnate the singer Tony de Matos. This obsession leads him to sign up for an unique karaoke contest, where he will finally be able to give life to his longtime hero. And it’s amid a group of strange characters that Jorge will understand that, after all, he is not alone.

Set in a flooded and burning digital wasteland, ghosts argue about genetic testing, grief, and love.

All the stories told, all the memories, dreams and lost moments were left in a tank from other generations.

In the midst of Mozambique's devastating civil war, Muidinga, an orphaned refugee, wanders the countryside in search of his mother. His only companion is an elderly storyteller, and the only guide to finding his mother is a dead man's diary. This transporting drama underscores the power of imagination in surviving, and ultimately overcoming, the catastrophe of war.

At the age of 22, Sofia discovers that her father and grandfather belong to the “Order of Idol Makers”. This Order planned and executed the deaths of Socrates, John F. Kennedy, Elvis, Marylin Monroe, and many others in order to turn them into Idols. They believe that idols are necessary to inspire young people and to promote noble values in a society that is increasingly full of frivolous / vain / superficial ideas and people. Their death is the only way to immortalize the noblest among them. However, until now, only men who are sons of members of the Order were allowed to join. Now, for the first time, they’ve decided to give a woman the chance...

Two friends meet and the news is given that the grandmother of one of them has died. What was supposed to be a moment of consolation ends up becoming a change of perspective on death.

One night Jorge will meet with a Japanese industrialist, who will allow him to abandon his teaching position and resume his chemical work. However, when he gets home he finds a person there.

A 20 year old young man asks some kids if he can play football with them. They think it’s weird and ask him how old is he. When he answers «I’m ten» he is laughed at. But he is going to find another group of kids who are different, just like him…

Maria works in a German umbrella factory as the foreman of the production sector. João Lucas has given up on living a normal life and practically lives in bed, in the midst of green plants. His father expressly desired that his son film this eccentric daily life in 8 mm format. Maria’s wages are dilapidated to the last penny by this amateur, monstrous, family movie production.

An intriguing story about a family and a manor house (where some terrible crimes were committed in the past by a member of that family) adapted from a novel with the same title by Tabajara Ruas.

Three friends wonder about what happened to their dead friend.

Shooting on 16mm film in Mozambique, director Ico Costa explores the textures of human behaviour as he follows young men who wonder what lies beyond their immediate surroundings. In the fragments of conversations captured in the Maputo market, a recording studio and on coconut trees, we find daily routines and tedium lead to chit-chat on desire, money and hope. In the interplay between performance and document, poetry emerges from fleeting everyday moments.

Miracles still happen—or so they say… What is the place of the sacred in the contemporary world? Looking again at a myth that haunts us, that of Saint Anthony of Lisbon (and also of Padua), through the timeless painting of Goya, 13 Alfinetes is a story of love, revenge, and blood. It begins with a reenactment of an episode supposedly occurring in medieval Lisbon, filtered through the cosmopolitan 18th-century Madrid, and returning to Lisbon today, where miracles, in truth, no longer happen.

"Until one day... when the first shot was fired, everyone had to leave their homes." – In 1975, Ema was awaiting the arrival of her first child, in Angola. However, her tranquility was abruptly interrupted by a force that pulled her from her comfort and changed her life forever.

Two Angola, the colonial and the contemporary, spaced 60 years, share the curse of a mysterious island. In the past, the epicenter of the tragedy is an evil fortress, tomb of revolutionaries deported from the mainland. In the present, the building of a luxurious resort awakens the relentless jaw of justice. Soon after, workmen lacerated dead bodies, begin to appear. The horror spreads rapidly. Pedro Mbala is sent to the island to solve the problem. His target is a pack of stray dogs.

Seven years after the disastrous Battle of Alcácer Quibir, where King Sebastian and the nobleman Dom João disappeared, the latter's wife Dona Madalena de Vilhena finally gives up hope that he'll return and marries the knight Dom Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, with whom she has a daughter, who is afflicted by a fatal illness. Now only the tutor Telmo Pais retains the hope that the lost husband is alive, a premonition that may be confirmed after two decades, with the arrival of a mysterious pilgrim...

This is the story of a man who after living over ten years isolated away from his country, returns to avenge His brother's death. Inspired by the writings of David Henry Thoreau, he is translating 'Civil Disobedience' into Portuguese. The action is set between 1908 and 1910, between the assassination of the Portuguese King and Prince and the creation of the Portuguese Republic, an era where anarchists who fight against the monarchy often cross the path of burglars. On a country where corruption is set, the state representatives try to rob, arrest and kill innocents. The main character faces the tyranny of the state and tries to save the rest of his family. But this is a country where nothing changes.

Johnny White, a rising Youtube star, uploads a video that goes viral for the wrong reasons. A mix of consequences surges and Johnny tries to regain the trust of sweet and friendly Lary to prove her he's not the bad guy.

A young amateur illusionist has an encounter with his Bully, both face each other in an old-fashion duel.

Rua de Santa Catarina, a street that was formerly home to dozens of local businesses and hundreds of Porto residents, now sees a crowd of tourists attracted by the cheap, disposable amenities that are popping up everywhere at once. Gentrification has decontextualized Portuguese culture, rendering the landscape uncanny. The Basin Woman, a symbol of the female workers of the historic Bolhão Market, is chased down by seagulls in the midst of this transcendent chaos.

Books vanish from a library. A daughter says goodbye to her mother. A writer struggles with Alzheimer's disease.

Dans un Souffle traces Belgian figure skater Nina Pinzarrone's fragile yet unyielding pursuit of perfection. In blank and white, the audience is guided through fleeting shapes and expressions, exploring the quiet pain behind her graceful facade. Guided by Nina’s breath and silence, this documentary takes you on an ephemeral journey as she prepares for her first World Championship at the age of 17.

During one winter night, a Portuguese teenager, Alvaro, loses his life in a fight between a youth gang and the cops in a suburb of Paris. Cidalia, a 36 year old cleaning woman, his mother, decides to defy the code of silence of the Portuguese community and tries to find the truth. She losses her friends, her job and her family but gains a life.