Portugal
Bruno Aleixo has an accident the week before Christmas, leaving him in a coma. However, doctors are unanimous: they do not give a physiological reason for this comatose state, so they conclude that it is of a psychological nature. Bruno Aleixo, an assumed hater of the Christmas spirit, simply refuses to wake up. Using the recognized archetype of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Tale, sleeping Bruno Aleixo relives, in dreams, several traumatic Christmases of the past, present and future.
A long-hidden, personal doc about leaving a beloved house by the late, revered Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira.
One night, a group of workers realises that the administration is stealing machines and raw materials from their own factory. As they organize to survey the equipment and block the relocation of production, they are forced to stand at their posts with no work to do, as a form of retaliation, while negotiations over general lay-offs take place. The pressure leads to a breakdown of the workers along with the world around them.
Interweaving footage from the director’s three visits to North Korea with songs, spectacle, popular cinema and archival footage, Songs from the North takes a different look at this enigmatic country typically seen through the distorted lens of jingoistic propaganda and derisive satire. Challenging the meaning of freedom, love, patriotism and ultimately the human condition, it tries to understand, on their own terms, the psychology and popular imaginary of the North Korean people and the political ideology of absolute love which continues to drive the nation towards its uncertain future.
A journey into the life and work of beat poet and activist Bob Kaufman and his insistence that poetry is fundamental to humanity’s moral survival.
Who is Sycorax? The first character in Shakespeare’s “Tempest” to set foot on the island. The problem is that she has no voice. She is barely mentioned by Prospero as a crooked, old, wicked witch who vilely locked Ariel, the spirit of the air, in a tree. But why would she do that? Here, we wouldn’t believe Prospero so much.
Crista, Carloto and João are building an airy greenhouse for butterflies in the garden. The three of them share household routines, day after day… And they are not the only ones.
The life of a young man, son of an English officer who lets himself become a prisoner of love resulting in fatalism and disgrace.
A transgender woman attempts to rehabilitate her younger, drug-addicted boyfriend while also dealing with her ne’er-do-well son, a solider who’s gone AWOL.
Part memoir, part city symphony, part noir-ish B-movie adventure, the new feature from critically acclaimed film-making duo João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata (To Die Like a Man) is a sensual, shape-shifting ode to one of the world’s most mythic, alluring and exoticized cities.
With renowned wine importer Martine Saunier as our guide, we journey into Portugal’s spectacular Douro Valley to explore the mystery and complexity of the world of port
A picture of daily life punctuated by silence. In a village in the north, the daily routine of three families. Glimpses of Isabel, her eyes turned towards the future; for the others, living is the only meaning of life. The camera freezes moments of life through the movement of things in time, values and silence. – Cinéma du Réel
During a night of humiliation, Raymond lives an inner revolt and a kaleidoscopic journey in a country that is about to collapse.
Swaying between pleasure and despair, Elric throws himself into his pathological passion for the casino. Meeting Suzie could have saved him, but the young woman also sinks into gambling hell. The couple then start getting involved in the fearsome world of professional cheaters.
A story of a man with a very dense eyes who sees all the surrounding reality only after seven years. The consequence of the eye defect translates into the mental immaturity of the man, lack of understanding of the present and belated reflections on long-gone facts. The man is never mature enough for his age and constantly lingers on the past.
Rio de Janeiro, 1886. A precious Stradivarius violin presented to Emperor Dom Pedro II is stolen. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are called to solve the case.
An angry young man goes to Europe to find his father, a ’60s radical turned doctor in exile.
An anxious woman navigates the bustle of modern day Cairo to find her missing lover, a young adult strives for an authentic connection in a future society numbed by alcohol, and two Cold War-era lovers face the consequences of finding romance across political borders. A vibrant collection of short films – by turns gritty and dreamlike – exploring the changes and complexities of a Love Evolving.
Javi and his friend Carlos visit an old house on the outskirts of a small Spanish village. According to his brother Juan this is a haunted house and one can hear the voices of the dead. Later he is intrigued with a room which is always closed (the room where his father was found dead). He is so interested in these mysteries that he starts to investigate all the secrets of these dead people and their stories.
Francisco, behave! I Know it’s your birthday, you are thirty now, it’s carnival, you’ve dressed as a cowboy for the school party and you are surrounded by kids you hate. But that’s no reason to be so annoying… Francisco, repeat after me: “Up to your 30s you have the face God has given you. After that, you get the face you deserve”.
When a group of friends fail to lower the ladder of their boat, they find themselves stranded in the surrounding waters and struggle to survive.
Sonia, a girl from St. Petersburg, decides to seek a better life in Western Europe. She first gets a job at a car dealer in Germany. But she is suddenly kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. She will be dragged from country to country and resistance will only bring her misery and humiliation.
Brazil, 18th century. The colony of Portugal endures a decline in gold production. A Portuguese minority rules over a corrupt and autocratic society. Joaquim is an efficient soldier, famous for capturing gold smugglers. While waiting for his promotion to Lieutenant, he leaves for a risky mission in search of new gold mines – the only way to buy the freedom of Blackie, a slave he is in love with. Inspired by the true story of Tiradentes, the first leader of the Brazilian revolutionary movement.
Sergio is a brooding, alienated man who works as a trash collector in Lisbon by day and roams the city streets by night seeking rough, anonymous sex with men. One night he meets a man who seems to be the embodiment of his tormented fantasies, and he becomes obsessed with the stranger until loneliness and unfulfilled desire propel him finally into a dark and dangerous animalistic state.
An unflinching, fragmentary look at a handful of self-destructive, marginalized people, but taking as main focus the heroin-addicted Vanda Duarte.
In the middle of the 2008 global financial crisis, Vanda finds herself alone and broke, with two children to raise. She embarks on a string of bank heists using a blonde wig and a toy gun and, in the process, becomes a folk hero.
Amid the dried out-and-dead desert oasis of suburban Las Vegas, and after three years apart, a young couple decides it’s finally time to move in with each other and take their relationship to the next level.
“Campo de Marte” (The Field of Mars) was in the ancient times Rome’s training arena for war. At the outskirts of Lisbon, “Campo” hosts today Europe’s largest military base. In this place military troops train fictional missions, astronomy aficionados observe the stars and a boy plays the piano for the wild deers lurking in the dark.
Dracula kills another innocent victim and Dr. Seward decides it’s time to wipe him off the face of the earth. Armed with a hammer and a wooden stake, he arrives at Castle Dracula and duly dispatches the vampire Count. Next day, however, Dr. Frankenstein arrives with his assistant, Morpho, and a large crate containing the monster. Using the blood of a pub singer who has been abducted by his creation, the doctor brings Dracula back to life and uses him for his own ends. The Count and a female vampire continue to terrorise the town, so Dr Seward once again sets out for Castle Dracula. Unfortunately, he is attacked by the Frankenstein monster and left for dead. Amira, a gypsy, rescues him and summons up a werewolf to do battle with the forces of evil…
Immerses us in the devastating reality of Afghanistan after the Taliban occupation: music has been banned. Forced into hiding, a group of young musicians attempt a harrowing escape to Portugal. Will they be able to find their voices again?
Ana was born in São Miguel, an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean ruled by religion and traditions. Growing up as the middle child of a family of three with her mother and grandmother. Early Ana realized that girls and boys were given different tasks. Through her friendship with Luis, her queer best friend who loves dresses as much as pants, Ana questions the world that is promised to her. When her friend Cloé arrives from Canada, bringing with her the glowing days of youth, Ana embarks on a journey that will take her beyond the horizon.
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.
The tragic story of the many lives of Father Dinis, his dark origins and his pious works, and the different fates of all those who, trapped in a sinister web of love, hate and crime, cross paths with him through years of adventure and misfortune in the convulsed Europe of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Mommy’s boy Juantxo is engaged. Dragged to the party by his friends Konradin and Paco, he loses his expensive wedding ring inside the body of a prostitute. Mafioso whorehouse owner Villambrosa finds the ring. Meanwhile Villambrosa’s rival gangster Souza sends femme fatale Fatima to check things out. Juantxo and his friends are trying to get the ring back and in the process get involved in the war between gangs.
