Discoveries from Portugal World Cinema

A young poet suffering from a heartbreak, embarks alone on a journey in search of his happiness.

Little Syria follows the quest of a brother, his sister and her boyfriend, trapped between a Syria from which they ran for their lives, and a Europe which seems at times to embrace them and at others to push them back. In the time of making of this film, more than 14 million Syrians have been forced to leave their homes. Syrians asked for asylum in more than 130 countries. Reem, Mohammed and Yasser try to make sense of what is left of the Syrian Revolution. Little Syria is a confidential insight into the invisible lives of Syrian refugees.

By instinct, he covers the flame before him. The fire consumes tears and fever, little by little. Only then the sorrow begins. A cold wind sweeps the ashes from the floor and freezes the room.

Demônia is a devilish being. Or an evil woman.​

“A collection of self-portraits captured over more than ten years. Between the moment I was given my first (and modest) camera and the summer of 2016, there are grandchildren learning to swim and shoals of shipwrecked people in the Mediterranean…” – R.G.

Little is known about the figure of Isabel Santaló, an old artist, today fallen into oblivion. But occasionally some visitors come to her flat. Through them and the voice of Antonio López (Dream of Light, Víctor Erice), the only painter who remembers her, we shape a multifaceted film. This is a cinematic portrait, which well into the film takes a surprising turn. A film that reflects on memory and oblivion, art and the creative process; posing the question of what it means to be an artist and a woman.

A family struggles to survive isolated from civilization, with the exception of a neighbor who lives nearby. A storm that has haunted them for the past four years, tests the family’s faith while they face their crop’s decay and other peculiar events.

Two body snatchers try to rob a body from a morgue where a cross-dressing doctor obsessed with fame works.

Nebula Studios presents the story of a hungry lab bunny who accidentally gives life to his favorite food and now he needs to make unexpected alliances against a bigger threat.

What the ocean bringeth, the ocean taketh away

Three friends about to turn 30 call themselves animal names: Badger, Hyena and Pigeon. They like to spend time in their favorite bar in the Bratislava city Zoo, and they starve for a serious relationship, a soul mate for life. Hyena is a virile macho, employed as a tiger feeder and seducing women never was a problem for him. In this matter the other two, Badger, a prosecuting attorney and Pigeon, employed as a water bicycle keeper, are far less successful. Times are about to change for Badger, who after years of fantasizing about a woman's voice in the radio finally decides to meet her in real life. As the friends closely follow Badger's new adventure, they discover, that a man is trying to kill him, because of his extensive zeal in persecuting local mafia at court. The killer happens to be the husband of the radio speaker, with whom Badger just started a romance. It is an absurd world full of funny coincidences, in which a story of falling in love becomes a matter of staying alive.

After the brother's death by a bull, the "Bezoiro", Manuel refuses to succeed him as mayoral, the very day he marries Maria Loba.

A series of 8 short films. Each film was inspired by an Edward Hopper painting. The series has been commissioned by Arte France and produced by Didier Jacob, En Haut des Marches. The 8 shorts are 'Next to Last' by Mathieu Amalric with Frederick Wiseman as Edward Hopper, 'The Muse' by Sophie Barthes with Michael Stuhlbarg, 'Hope' by Dominique Blanc with Clemence Poesy, 'First Row Orchestra' by Sophie Fiennes, 'Conference at Night' by French director Valerie Mrejen, 'Rupture' by young animation director Valerie Pirson, 'Berlin Night Window' by German director Hannes Stohr, 'Mountain' by Danish director Martin de Turah.

Gender equality is bullshit, but that's going to change! Or is it? If until now this was a club for smooth-talking gentlemen, the film marks the debut of Détinha (Ana Bola), the legendary wife of Zezé (José Pedro Gomes). Decades of life together remembered as best as possible: their children's antics, the neighborhood where they always dumped their trash, the wedding that only those who were there forgot. From polyamory to fitness, from prostate "prostheses" to uterine "ovens," this couple has no taboos. But Zezé and Détinha have some secrets from each other... Unfortunately (or regrettably, Zezé would say), the Portuguese will have to find out. What a load of crap.

Catalyst in the story of crossed paths is a 1957 Ford Fairlane being driven through Portugal’s Alentejo region to a new owner. Film’s overly protracted opening has car’s drivers (Filipe Cochofel, Antonio Pedro Figueiredo) joy riding the night away until the roadster breaks down. Momentum picks up at sunrise with their attempts to fix the car. A retired mechanic-turned-beekeeper with a heart condition (Canto e Castro) does the trick and convinces Figueiredo to take him cross-country on a motorbike to look up an old friend. Cochofel and the mechanic’s alarmed niece (Maysa Marta) follow in pursuit. The old man dies peacefully on the road, but Figueiredo, having wholeheartedly grasped his deliverance mission, keeps going.

A story from a time when mystery made all the difference and where the most subtle sense of observation reigns supreme. It all begins with the death of the Swimmer, discovered at the edge of the cliff. But to this day, it is not known who fired the fatal shot, despite a thorough investigation by the Judicial Police, with special attention given to three girls—two sisters and a friend—who are there on vacation. But the doubt remains, and the inspector who conducted the investigation wonders, because the three seemingly naive teenagers leave the inspector with the conviction that, between their statements and their father's assertive maturity, it will be difficult to prove what his instinct tells him.

A man lives isolated in his grandmother's country-house in an attempt to recover from a tragic event involving his family. His lonely and silent days are spent with an unnameable hope.

A documentary on one of the most important Portuguese Plastic Artists, with greatest International projection. Shown here are his techniques, themes, and obcessions developed for over two decades, as well as its ramifications into different supports such as Video, Photography, literature, taking the rare oportunity granted by a full retrospective of his work at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, including the works dispersed through International collections.

24 years later, America Football Club competes for a title again.

The film is liberally inspired by the period when Eça de Queiroz was Portuguese Consul in Cuba, when still a Spanish colony. Eça de Queiroz struggles against local authorities in his defense of Chinese workers, brought to the sugar plantations by greedy middlemen and exploited as slaves. Two parallel stories unfold, that of a Chinese girl which Eça de Queiroz saves from the clutches of one of the island’s most powerful slave owners, and the other of a romance involving a young American woman on holidays in Havana.

A young student sets out to investigate a long-forgotten crime in the quiet, small Portuguese town of Dornelas, Amares. But as night falls, his search leads him to a witch and to the horrors that have been waiting for him.

Uirá is a Brazilian indigenous man who will undergo a journey that address the greed and exploitation caused by money, coming in collision with the transformed legends that bring back the rites of his ancestry.

In oPorto there is a club, Imperatriz, where everything is permitted. A moment in which all intersect in the dark night.

Vasco, a young pianist, spends entire nights practicing after a mysterious musician shows him his true potential. His world changes as the piano consumes more and more of his life.

João Eduardo, a young inexperienced doctor, takes up work in a village. The initial skepticism from the community gives place to esteem for the new physician after some well succeeded cases.

One of the most far-reaching events in a human life is the birth of your baby. But life with a newborn can be so ordinary and at the same time all-embracing: the wash is drying in the corridor, the bathroom has to be cleaned. In the calm rhythm of the day, 'Ordinary Time' skims past authentic moments like this.

Based on poems by Charles Bukowski.

On July 6th, 1808, the "Bom Sucesso" caique and 18 fishermen left Olhão, in Portugal, towards Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), taking with them the good news that Portugal was finally free of Napoleon's enemy troops.

"Estadio Novo is about Portugal, its football and its fans. As hordes of supporters descend on the ten brand new stadiums for Euro 2004, this lively and informative documentary takes a look at their impact. Examining the role of football in Portugal before and the revolution of 1974 it asks... what's really going on?"

Early morning and everybody leaves home to work. Jeremias, the gardener, hears the telephone ringing in the house. The front neighbour has a message. Conceição, the maid, called: she won’t be able to come today, Jeremias has to make lunch for Boris. Water falls from the window. the washing machine is not working properly. Boris arrives from school. Jeremias doesn’t have the key

In a society controlled by the SYSTEM, a Nazi variant of Big Brother limiting citizens privacy, João falls in love with Leonor, a persecuted Jew. The vigilant inspector who watched them, decided to let them in freedom, reconciling with his past: he was the grandfather of Leonor.

World peace is at stake if a spy-ring obtains the electronic device

As the summer of 1980 ends, 16 and 17 year old sisters Maria and Alda flee to Lisbon from Angola?s civil war. In the hands of fate, they must learn to live without money in a foreign city. On the edge of the law, the two have to grow up and become women. When the problems are already overwhelming, news comes that makes them unbearable. This blow, however, will give them the push to decide their futures: Alda is going to France and Maria back to Angola in search of her roots.

At the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, Lúcio, a playwright and writer, and Ricardo, a renowned and enigmatic poet, form a deep bond. Marta, an enigmatic figure, arrives and stirs up impulses of desire and madness between the men.

Valentina and Vasco are siblings and live in their father's house. He is protective, but most of the time he is an idiot. However, Valentina takes refuge in writing and reading, and is an aspiring poet. At the same time, she finds herself in a situation with her boyfriend, Alexandre, and needs to know how to deal with them.

A large, time-worn house sits on a towering, untouchable pedestal. Ressaca Bailada – Filme Concerto follows individuals as they navigate their relationship with freedom, unity, and isolation within this setting. Celebrating tradition while confronting and questioning it, all against a backdrop of music that shapes the journey.

In a society where the weak are oppressed, Sofia and Michael share their life stories through a wall

Traveling by car to Sintra, a mysterious lady, arriving in Lisbon by ship, is the victim of an accident.

A message of praise to the President concludes a Party assembly, sparking apotheotic applause. In the middle of the crowd inquisitive eyes of the State Police look for the slightest sign of dissent, and the ovation does not cease.

Tormented by a mysterious figure named Belmiro, a young woman goes up on a stage to deliver a monologue about her past and fight against herself.

This is a love story full of encounters and mismatches, in which resides a constant presence of an incessant search for the relationships of happiness and self- esteem between the two characters.

An artistically shot film that slowly blurs the boundaries between dreams and reality as it builds into an unnerving then touching climax.

In a semi-submerged world, in between shipwrecks and ruins, a man spends his days in an old shack perched on tall stilts, with the only company of a cat and an old tape recorder.

At a summer camp in 2007, João meets Ivo. We Were Just Brats is a possible narrative of a queer teenager who finds, in the dormitory and in the hip-hop and pop music of his world, a space that oscillates between self-discovery and punitive surveillance.

This documentary looks at and reflects on an economic, social and cultural context, which has gone under a transformation in the last two decades. The fishing community of the Estuário do Baixo Mondego, situated between the cities of Figueira da Foz and Montemor-o-Velho.

A high-value object (Payload) must be delivered to a buyer. What was supposed to be a routine exchange turns into a frantic chase involving several parties, all using every means possible to obtain the Payload.

S.Ó.S.”, by Bruno Soares, “Céu Aberto ou Espaço Limitado”, by José António Loureiro, and “Para Cá do Marão”, by José Mazeda, are three short films, all first works by their directors , shown as if they were a single film. What they have in common is the fact that they deal with crimes. Bruno Soares' film, with Marco Costa, Joel Branco and Carmen Santos, deals with a robbery in Lisbon, with the owner of the house confusing the robber with his son. The one by José António Loureiro, with Joaquim Nicolau, is about a man who leaves prison and has difficulty adapting. Finally, José Mazeda's, with João Lagarto, focuses on a dispute in Trás-os-Montes between a local and a Galician.