Discoveries from Portugal World Cinema

As the movie quotes "A arte como refúgio" Alexandre Campelo is a visual artist. He has just created an exhibition and, therefore, it is invited for an interview. When asked about his inspiration, he relives the summer of 1998, where his life changed drastically and he met the love of his life. After almost 30 years, Alexandre finds in art the way to overcome all his hurt.

How do women, who have lived affective relationships that involved some form of violence, live and relate to the world? "Anastácias", portrays the lives of five black women from communities in the Jabaquara region, on the southern outskirts of São Paulo, from the premise of affection.

A festive day in the Timorense community stranded in the Jamor Valley. A partisan who came from Timor and his story. A look at an abandoned people.

A spectacular view of the world as seen from Armando and Maria's control tower, eight floors up from the river Douro. A comic and probing portrait of an old Portuguese couple whose private life has remained permeable to the modern world.

Documentary about the life, convictions and career of Portugal's first and only female Prime Minister. Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo believed that "women can be a force for radical transformation of the institutionalised irrationality in which we live. The multifunctionality of their existence, the diversity of the planes on which they move, their daily lives give them a special capacity to find a new understanding and a new effectiveness for governance in the midst of complexity". Unlike many other women who have the same conviction, Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo turned her life into a praxis of her own belief.

A group of friends decide to spend New Year at a beach house. Away from social media they find out they don't know each other fully.The drama, immersive and set in a New Year's trip, investigates the human relations and social conflicts of the postmodern generation, from the events experienced by the group of friends. It is a critique of how young people hide their problems through networks.

We stare at mirrors as if 'image' was a weapon of self-defense. At night, I hide in actors' dressing rooms for a working class experience. By day, I face an old theatre being razed to the ground, making way for a parking lot. Graffitis have curtains, the nose cap of an umbrella arises from a mount of sand. Oh, Happy Days! No need to stage anything! The bulldozer is a dinosaur whose teeth and gracious neck swings by a EU flag. In the boxes, we await the audience. Sometimes, nobody comes. Lost in a symbolic show of reality, I can only watch the world's end because all the endangered species perform and a reflecting labyrinth of life stories breaks through the glass of the Economic Eating Machine. Even when the sky is falling, theatre will always happen. So, choose the right place.

VIVA ÁGUA is a meditation on the philosophical work entitled ÁGUA VIVA written by Clarice Lispector in 1973. The film reflects on Lispector’s interior experimental monologue on the “instant-now” of time, the discomforts of language which are “beyond thought” and the harmonious dissonant reminders and remainders of that “sometime what is seen is ineffable.”

Six adventurers go on a quest for a mystical cemetery. After disturbing the dead, they trigger an ancient curse that will destroy the entire world.

Erros Meus, Má Fortuna, Amor Ardente brings us a story from a small, rural village in the interior of Portugal where, by reason of a funeral, people from all parts of the region are arriving. Maria is a young woman from that village, unsatisfied with her marriage with João, who has never given her a child: her biggest desire. By cause of the funeral, Carlos arrives, and his arrival and Maria's emancipated behavior generate distrust from the other villagers. Maria, a serious, beautiful and virtuous woman, loved by every man in the village and hated by all the women, awakes in João the weakness of jealousy, and in Carlos the weakness of an old love.

A world of strong colours between documentary and fiction, centered on the life and work of modernist painter Amadeo de Souza Cardoso.

A young shoemaker marries an older man, but he, jealous, leaves home. The woman opens a tavern and her husband returns in disguise to test her fidelity. Television adaptation of the play by Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, translated by Carlos Wallenstein and directed by Varela Silva, with Amália Rodrigues in the lead role.

A young woman murdered, a police investigation, an highly improbable motive. But Inspector Q does not give up and a deranged killer finds the police net closing around him.

Contemplating the failure of his life, Rogério drinks until losing control of his actions and involves himself in a bar brawl. His alcoholic drift takes him to the city port, where he falls asleep while watching passing ships. When a young woman appears in the night, seemingly running from something, Rogério offers to help and enters a nightmare he never imagined it could become his.

(within the project URB) CIDADE is a TV series that takes place in the diverse, urbanistically chaotic and multicultural periphery of Lisbon. Each episode has for landscape and dramatic background the everyday-life in the social housing neighborhoods and shanty towns of Lisbon. It explores the infinite possibilities of narratives and characters generated by the daily confrontation of the normal life of the city with several layers of cultural heritages and lifestyles, brought by different waves of migration. A network of interconnected characters, families and ties makes the narrative to evolve and illustrates the cultural, artistic, social and economic explosion that we are about to live in here.

Portrait of a Portuguese bar whose boundary is a road in a little village. Through a succession of everyday scenes, a community appears, which is unified by the fact that there they feel “at home”. Its protagonists eat, drink, discuss, watch tv... they all spend time there, waiting for something.

Impossible Invasion is the fifth film in the Lisboa Sociedade Anónima series. Set in the 1960s, it is a touching descent into the emotional misery of the petty bourgeoisie living in rented rooms, suffocating on precarious civil service salaries, with a cultural horizon of soccer and television, and against the backdrop of the colonial war and the glory of the bridge over the Tagus. Noteworthy are the fine performances of the actors (especially Maria do Céu Guerra), the creation of an oppressive and mediocre atmosphere, well underscored by songs from the period, and the concise and rigorous characterization.

This film tells the story of Gonthramm, a young knight who sought in vain for the Holy Grail and, on the way back to join his bride, Galeswithe, is met by Queen Banschi in the nightmarish realm of the Sylphs. Brum do Canto based the story on Charles-Marie Leconte de Lisle's Les Elfes.

At Maria do Céu's mansion, the Garcias prepare for their first Christmas with the whole family together, but not everything will go as planned... Will the magic of Christmas really happen in Alvorinha?

She arrives home at the end of the day, tired. While she prepares dinner, he reads the newspaper. Finally, she decides to bake some special cookies.

The act of creation is always bold, courageous and unique. Several times the expected result is not achieved. So we have to try again and again and...

The mountain burns in the August heat. A firefighter falls, swallowed by the ground. The broken body survives as it can. Outside, the night descends.

Maria Papoila, a shepherdess from Beira working in Lisbon, one day meets a rich young man, Eduardo, whom she assumes to be of her own social standing due to his uniform as a private soldier. Some time later, arrested as a suspect in a major robbery, Eduardo is abandoned by his selfish fiancée, Margarida, and it is the "soup girl" who, although despised in her dream and sacrificing her honor, appears in court as Eduardo's lover, and he is acquitted. Without asking for anything in return, Maria Papoila returns to her village.

A couple's relationship in the pandemic during lockdown becomes fragile and they feel less and less love for each other. Until Alberto begins to believe in himself, in love, in work, and in life in general again.

BUÔN is an exposition of thought, desire to travel and see a world beyond the walls of a city terminating the social , mental, physical, psychological , political and individually on their projects , nooks and architectures.

New York City is considered by many to be the most exciting place on earth with its stunning landscape, vibrant nightlife and eclectic mix of residents. And the history of the "Big Apple" is as fascinating and colorful as the people you meet on the streets. Actor James Woods narrates this exciting chronicle of the city that never sleeps. Famous residents such as Brian Dennehy, Janeane Garofalo, Donald Trump, Joan Rivers, Steve Allen and former mayor Ed Koch, provide their own unique view of New York. From its humble beginnings as a trading post for beaver and otter pelts to its evolution as the world's financial center, discover why millions of people cram the streets of New York City on a daily basis to see the sights, to sample the food and to witness the ultimate Broadway show.

Alexandra and Miguel meet regularly and passionately at her home. He has already started to create some expectations for the future. She is still trying to understand where that is going to take her. This gap between them leads them to confrontation in a way that will mark them for life

Three girlfriends, a summer night and a green eyed man. A true urban story.

Each day, Man must work around the clock to produce and acquire bread: throwing the seeds into earth, helping the breeding of the corn, the corn's recolt, transport to the mills – traditional or industrial ones – manipulation of the flour into actual bread, transport to a variety of locations and consumers. And then, after the consumption, the cycle restarts.

Sentimental montage of the past, present and future of 2019's second month's memories.

In the distant future, the world of the eternal present is inhabited by bio-mechanical-digital-electronic beings. But one of these beings does not believe that it has always been like this and sets out on a journey of discovery in 3 stages.

Between 2006 and 2014, a building on Liberty Avenue in Lisbon, it was a place for fifty national and international artists, in the idea of developing their artistic practice. Throughout these years, a series of events have taken place including concerts, improvisations, performances, workshops, classes and mostly collective and individual exhibitions. After the emergence of the New Bank, the Avenue space was sold for millions of euros, to make way for a luxury condominium. Here the building itself is retracted as a character, hosting some phantom testimonies of artists who have passed by.

Ana is a child, girl, adult, tall, fat, thin... Ana is the part of all of us that once in a while wakes up without knowing who she is. That conscious amnesia that propels us to travel, question, look without tiring even though it might not be clear who or what we might find.

When Carlos (a peculiar yet successful writer) starts watching the young couple next door from his window - seeking inspiration for his next book - he begins to witness increasingly odd events.

A quiet sense of impending change threads together scenes from director Aragon Yao’s own life. Calls from his parents in China inquiring after his marital status blend with calls from his boyfriend asking about his job prospects, each underscoring the reality that the student visa that brought him to Europe will soon end. With time running out, Yao faces tough questions about his relationship with his family, culture, and his sense of self. Seeking release, he turns to drag. Shifting between observational footage, paper puppetry, and poetic symbolism, Yao explores expressions of sexual identity in this essay about queerness, immigration, and performance.

Comedy TV movie with several gags on supposed homossexuality in the relationship between Batman and Robin.