Discoveries from Portugal World Cinema

A TV set awakens and tries to tune himself in, but with no success. When he accidentally comes across the weather channel, it’s the weather girl, rather than the weather, which catches his attention...

A student goes up João Gualberto Street on a bicycle while the third world is about to explode.

Tiago doesn't understand the internet. Rita doesn't understand people. Tiago is a 5th and 6th grade History teacher who, against the will of his mother and his boss, lives without a smartphone or computer, completely offline. Rita is his antisocial neighbour, who loves videogames and procrastinating. Sailorspoon and Davintji are funny and wise youtubers... Whilst Sailorspoon dreams of a trip to Japan, Davintji suffers with the love life of his brother Marco. Diana searches for love with an app... She and Marco form a romantic pair that meets over the net. All of them trying to discover who they are, and how to survive in a world that is increasingly digital. Dick pics, hashtags, youtubers, memes. Illuminati confirmed!

The evocation of light in the cinema leads the Character of the Man of Light to ponder over it, over its essence and its multiple manifestations in a revisitation of geographical places and memories.

Nowadays the art of baking bread has become so common that it lost the charm of its confection. This documentary presents a bakery that has never lost the essence or taste of producing this essential good. From distribution to production, gestures can be observed that, in the mere details, allow us to appreciate this ancient art in a way that is not common these days.

“The artist, in his movement towards the ideal, upsets the stability of any one society. Society aspires to achieve stability; the artist aims for infinity. That is the artist’s responsibility and the spiritual sacrifice demanded of him.” Rui Chafes, O Perfume das Buganvílias, 2012 (19).

A thriller adapted from a play presented on BBC Radio 4 by renowned English author Dawn King, this Portuguese version is a film about obsessive love in our modern world of constant communication, set almost entirely in telephone conversations. In a large Brazilian city, Laura, in her early 30s, has just separated from her married lover, Ben, and agrees to go out with Noah, whom she met on an online dating site. What follows is a story about not accepting the end of a relationship and the fact that the other party has no interest in continuing. The twists and turns in the story show the psychological and physical dangers that lurk in modern relationships and that end up not ending well for anyone.

It’s winter and there is no rain. Sofia returns to her grandmother’s house. In the mountains, she finds a land where only the Wind lives. All that’s left of the house is dust and ashes. In the attic, Sofia finds pieces of lives other than her own. That’s where the house listens.

A child is lost from her mother and refuses to move from the same place. A policeman stops everyone else to make her move. The still girl and the policeman that guards her stop traffic and stir up the city’s hearts.

The video comprises body exploration with red light and slow motion to convey to the viewer the idea of strength, power, fear and the concept of the underworld. Using electronic music, upside-down plans and timed cuts, I wanted to convey a self-image of surreality and non-conformity with reality. The title, “Hades”, makes explicit reference to the God of Death and the Underworld in Greek mythology, and serves as a guide for the planned sensations of agony, pleasure, revelation and space-time detachment. This is how I see myself, this is how I think I should be.

Pedro Costa first foray into filmmaking was a short-film co-produced for RTP within a series named “Cartas a Júlia.”

A documentary organized around the promotion of Indo-Portuguese cultural heritage, with commented pictures of the most striking examples of civil and religious architecture and housing areas marked by portuguese traditional construction. Patent portuguese memory in everyday's commercial and artistic life of Cochin, now the capital of Kerala state and surrounding regions of Cranganor, Calicut, Quilon and Travancore. The undisputed and recognized influence of Indo-Portuguese Catholic communities across the region.

A man is detailed for a secret mission in the countryside. After beginning to understand what it really is about, he progressively descends into madness.

Shot in film and hand processed by the director for over 20 years, Lucefece mixes personal, political and mythical views on reality exorcizing old ghosts. Stories from the director's childhood, together with conversations with his father, that fought in the colonial war in Africa and later was arrested, prepare the scenario for a profound reflexion on today's world. The film spirals like a snake travelling through time, an eternal recurrence, mixing documentary with film essay and autobiographical tones.

A film about a paradise through the eyes of those who live there. From the weight of Leve Leve to the sour of Doce Doce.

Guatemala - which means country of many trees. In the so-called "everlasting spring," the adventure boasts an extraordinary climb and view of the Fuego volcano, a visit to the Mayan city Tikal, a tarantula encounter ... among many, many other amazing stories and experiences that this country - and people - they provided us. "Paraíso Xibalba" is the second Maduco Beleza travel documentary in partnership with Landescape, directed and produced by Marco Almeida, voiceover and presentation by Rui Unas and as travel leader João Amorim.

Edgar is a jaded photographer. One evening he witnesses a murder. The culprit escapes. Edgar, instead of helping the victim, becomes mesmerized by the expression of pure terror in her face.

The story of a woman who searches through the country for her husband, a resistant, while the war for independence is raging. She finds him at last and saves his life. When peace finally arrives, they have to learn how to be together again and start living in a destroyed land.

Lucília works in the house of Jorge, son of a wealthy family from the countryside, who falls in love with her and ends up getting her pregnant before abandoning her. Over the years, Jorge, married to a woman he doesn't like, finds his lost daughter.

A story about love and revenge. There are no innocents here.

“Madrigal for a Living Poet” is a chant to life, an aesthetic tribute to the writer Tico. Filmic reverie about the reflections that the character brings, is a film about memory, which brings to light not only the agonizing paths of remembering, but also its political, resistance force, which insists on reinventing everyday life and searching for lost meanings.

A baroque wall fountain in the Portuguese town of Porto, which is called "Chafariz das Virtudes" i.e. "The fountain of virtues". Porto is the very town in the north of Portugal in which Manoel de Oliveira was born and has been growing up and which is still today a central reference point of the artist. The fountain, which was dried-out for many years, was brought back to life again especially for this film.

"Me At The Beach: The Documentary" is a documentary, but I think everyone had already gotten to this point. However, it's not just a documentary, but the documentary that will definitively close this "Silly Season 2022." Here, we'll present the various beach phenomena that have been studied over the past month, and I won't say more to avoid spoilers!

Eva and Sónia, orphans in their twenties, with very different backgrounds from each other, are in a romantic relationship held only by a van in which they live in and travel across the country.

After learning he might have a serious medical condition, David (an art curator) faces the day trying to cope with the fear of death while experiencing life with a fresh set of eyes.

Shot with an iPhone, Layla meets Lancelot is a record of the director’s daily journey to and from work. Does happiness lie in accepting repetition or in interrupting it? Everything long awaited always takes place unexpectedly.

An experimental documentary about the largest artistic occupation in Latin America. An affective portrait of the early days of the occupation, which goes from the libertarian and utopian congregation to chaos.

Traveling by the experience and by the roots of one of the strongest manifestations of Portuguese popular culture – singing polyphonic Alentejo. Evoking Michel Giacometti, the film questions the origins of the “sing” in the context of Mediterranean culture.

Last part of the trilogy that approaches puberty in three Brazilian socio economic classes: A, B and C. The youngsters talks freely about their fears and projects, unveiling a broad outlook about the pre-adolescence universe in São Paulo.