Discoveries from Portugal World Cinema

Luísa is forbidden to go out on the street by her mother after being harassed. At home, imagination is the limit.

Farmer raised in the USA returns to Brazil when he discovers that his uncle is involved with some illegal activities.

A bar owner entices his customers with a giant sign reading Bar Regional. The National Bar pops up opposite. So, the former puts World Bar, its competitor puts Universal Bar, then all its customers flee to the original bar, now with a Bar Schweppes sign. This film won the Advertising Film Award at Annecy in 1967.

Maria's favourite pastime is machine inventing. She can't stay still. She's always thinking of something to build. She's invented so much that one day she just couldn't invent more.

Using a combination of archival footage with other video and film stock, scored by voiceover, a student at Caldas da Rainha School of Arts and Design, “Mónica” reflects on the existence of a central and ethereal character, with her own beliefs, experiences and fears, centered on eternity and death.

“The Two Brothers” is based on a true story. André, a Cape Verdean migrant in Lisbon, receives a letter from his father telling him that his younger brother João has had an affair with André’s wife and demanding his return to recover the family’s honour. His father and the entire village pressure him into killing his brother, his friend. A story of conflict between current laws and an unwritten, ancient law – that might be more powerful…

It starts in the Indian tabas, goes through colonial architecture and arrives in the Brazilian capital. The film follows a script left by Alberto Cavalcanti, after a trip to Brasilia in 1978.

A flight to Lisboa is diverted to Beja due to a snowstorm, forcing several passengers to spend Christmas Eve away from their families.

A professor faces a double of himself and hires a detective to find out who that is and what are his real intentions.

João is an indolent young man, whose life is desperately empty. Day after day he goes through the motions of duplicating keys in his tiny shop concealed in the basement of an obsolete nearly deserted shopping center. Some day, he hopes, the lady of his heart will come and order the key that will unlock his heart. Against all expectation, the miracle happens...

A protagonist in limbo, with a precarious work situation, a temporary home location. And a hidden facet of his life that he reveals to few.

'In the course of my cleaning duties, I examined the belongings of each guest of the hotel and observed through the details, lives that will remain unknown', says the temporary Chambermaid in a large seaside hotel, which, unable to communicate, lives through a rigid methodology of analysis of the exterior and a ritualised quotidian. Until the uncontrollable comes to disrupts this dynamic. Hotel Royal is fragmented and incomplete mosaic of contemporary societies. It could be dubbed a film about the horrors of the soul, about voyeurs or simply about misfits.

In mid-September 1992, journalist Guida Fontes have to go to Luanda to cover the elections in Angola. In the meantime, she had committed herself to discovering and interviewing the poet Júlio Vera. In 1988, he wrote a series of poems in which he mysteriously anticipated the fall of the USSR. Guida has only 12 days to complete the mission.

This really happened, or so it is said. In 1840, a few years after the Portuguese Civil War, a young man arrived at a village by the Douro, carrying a book full of stories. Following the teachings of that book, the villagers of Granja do Tedo founded a social and religious movement that would last seven years, led by the healer Maria das Neves, self-styled “Third Eve, by Jesus Crowned”. The promotion of women’s role in society, the divulgation of naturism, solidarity with the poor and the expansion of free education were some of the movement’s demands. Maria Coroada, Crowned Maria, tells us of the ability to converse with the gods that live inside of us, of the courageous search for voices that transcend us. It also tells us of a book’s power to transform a whole community. And of the beauty of that transformation.

Eddie and Manecas are two great friends. But they are also extremely stupid.

Mel, a girl from the countryside, and Cacau, a young woman from the city, meet on a bus. They start a conversation, unaware of what fate has in store for them.

The first character of the story comes to the apartment, trying to get away from the world. “His solitude is disrupted by the arrival of a couple who want to buy the apartment. As if part of a parallel universe, not all see that there is a man inside that apartment, only the woman of the couple sees and recognizes as a projection of herself. He dreams about her, or is she dreaming of him? A film about the reality we choose to see and what we choose to put aside and we prefer not to see.”

A debate arises between Jesus Christ and a beautiful nun about her nightlife and whether the scriptures address any punishment for her sins.

A woman returns. Now that the night has fallen, a storm approaches.

North of Italy, the von Kettens dispute the forces of the Episcopate of Trent. Herr Ketten seeks marriage in a distant country, Portugal. After their honeymoon journey back home, Ketten leaves again for the war. Eleven years elapsed… Rumours are running about the presence of that 'foreigner' in the castle. Some say she's a heretic. Until one day, the Bishop of Trento ends up dying and, with the signature of peace, falls the background of von Ketten's life. Will the Portuguese win, where death seems to be moving in?

A rift with the Catholic Church forces a nun to return to an idea of family where the chasm between dogma and faith will lead to an irreversible decision.

A film about distance, loss and the fragility of life symbolized through a garden that fell and a sea that swallowed it up.

Shooted from home-object´s perspective, the film follows a lonely woman locked at home because of corona-pandemic spending her days between fears and daydreams, in company of her furniture and appliances.

Filmed over seven years, the documentary follows Valter Hugo Mãe as he writes his novel “A Desumanização”, across journeys through Iceland, Brazil, Portugal, Colombia, and Macau. A visual meditation on solitude, loss, and belonging, featuring appearances by cartoonist Laerte Coutinho and Icelandic composer Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, mentor of bands such as Sigur Rós and Björk. The film is part of the project “The Meaning of Life”, which director Miguel Gonçalves Mendes has been developing for more than a decade: a series of nine features built as a kaleidoscope of contemporary figures, in which the filmmaker invites us to reflect on what makes us, as humans, unique beings.

Muanza, a woman born in the Kingdom of Kongo in the early nineteenth century and trafficked to Brazil, awakens to find herself in the present, roaming the streets of Rio’s rapidly changing port region, known as ‘Pequena Africa’, or Little Africa.

In a parallel world Pedro tries to hack his way into joining an exodus to another planet. While he dwells in his dreams and frustrations of being left behind he meets Eva, who challenges him and forces him to come to terms with his purpose.

Documentary in which the main events that marked the country and Portuguese society in the years 1974 and 1975 are chronologically addressed. The decay of the Marcelist regime, the Revolution of April 25, the troubled period of the Ongoing Revolutionary Process (PREC) , the failure of the Coup of 25 November. A film produced based on archival footage, interspersed with testimonies from some of the actors in the events of that time, to mark the 20 years of the Carnation Revolution.

A man prepares an old ritual in a temple abandoned by its followers.

Abroad at the time of her death, a grandson returns to revisit the house of his late grandmother, now occupied by another family. A reflection on the love for a home where one grew up and yet made by a grandmother missing another life, in another house, in another country.

Francisco Esteves, an elevator technician, lives between routine and a quiet passion for art. Inspired by the music of The Doors, he reflects on the paths not taken and the dreams that still drive him, in a constant search for meaning and freedom.

His school is closed. There are no other children on those mountains. To keep studying, this young kid must go to another place - unknown place. He finds haven in places he knows. Deep into autumn and this caterpillar still not a butterfly

The Brazilian hit "Barão Vermelho" makes an enigmatic show that made the history of the biggest rock festival in the country, Rock in Rio

When the fate of small Julinho crosses with Chantel, a transvestite who prostitutes herself, begins a tour on the history of a prince who was a queen in part-time. But to what extent can the fantasy prevail when confronted with reality?

A young man and a senior man wake up. Time passes. And stops.

It is the end of summer and Isabel is a relationship with Diogo. She don't quite know what she wants from her life going forward as her father gets sick.

The story of a little girl who went to live with her uncles after seeing her mother being murdered by her boyfriend

According to the perpetual lunar calendar: 'When sparks catch a pot of water, it signifies wind. When the hills echo loudly and the sea generates great noise, it signifies tempestuous winds and storms at sea. When dense fog forms at dawn, it signals two days' serenity.' Let’s wait and see.

An anxious young man struggles to accept his vulnerabilities whilst on holiday in an upper-class summer residence in Sardinia with his overtly masculine family.

José and Maria, a young, devout couple in a remote Portuguese fishing village, take a vow of chastity on their wedding night to honor a religious pact. Their commitment is pushed to the breaking point when they rescue a mysterious, wounded stranger and bring him into their home. As the outsider’s presence ignites repressed desires and jealousy, the couple's sacred promise leads to a violent confrontation with the local community's superstitions.