In 1974, after years of civil war, the Portuguese and their descendants fled the colony of Angola where independentist groups gradually claimed their territory back. A tribal girl discovers love and death when her path crosses that of a young Portuguese soldier. Meanwhile, another group of Portuguese soldiers is barracked inside an infinite wall from which they will have to escape once the past comes out of the grave to claim its long-awaited justice.
Camarero Mayor
Leo
On a rainy night, a sad man leaves his home to deliver a letter to someone who recently left him. At a corner, he meets a woman who warns him about the slippery road. This is how I met Diana. Suffering from a heartbreak, Gonçalo falls from his motorbike.
António
Two men talk about a cat.
Hunter
They all say that you killed an Angel. Who says that ? They. It’s not an Angel. It isn’t ? No. It’s a rare bird, just like you and me.
A father's journey to save his son.
A delirious sci-fi riff on the Arabian Nights' 'Tale of the Hunchback', that submerges us in a technological dystopia reigned by Dalaya.com, a mega-corporation that forces its employees to 'relax' at company-run medieval reenactments.
Rui
Certainly an outstanding case of beauty and mystery, this short film by Mozos creates a strange alloy of literature and cinema, and not in the way one discipline is a vampire for the other, but rather as if they were the different faces of the same coin, drawn to coexist and repel each other. As if every film belonged to a lonely species, Ashes and Embers shows a unique arrogance as it trembles, somewhat defenseless, with no certainty that the folds of fiction constitute any kind of survival guarantee for such strange objects. Memory and ghosts are two words that are easily said, but in this singular and very refined film they seem destined to become the ultimate goal of cinema, and its most endurable desire.
While the young captains lead the revolution in the streets, the people of Fontainhas search for Ventura, lost in the woods.
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.
Jorge
In this evocative story told ingeniously with minimal dialogue, men and women from various backgrounds and places each deal with the loss of a loved one.
After the Portuguese government demolishes his slum and relocates him to a housing project on the outskirts of Lisbon, 75-year-old Cape Verde immigrant Ventura wanders between his new and old homes, reconnecting with people from his past.
The way in which we cross, one time only, the space of a public swimming pool reminds us of life, from birth until the end.
A man is standing at the window, holding a chair. There are wafts of street noise, and occasionally the curtain flutters. A dog is barking. Then, elegiac music sets in, a lavish string arrangement of Billie Holiday's The End of a Love Affair. With this one-shot film, Pedro Costa portrays the state of feeling of the afterwards of a love affair which led nowhere.
Soldato spagnolo
It's the dawn of April 25, 1974, when Marco, a 25-year old Italian and his Portuguese friend Victor leave Paris on a yellow Citroen 2CV. The goal of their trip is Lisbon, which on that night was freed from Europe's longest dictatorship. The two are joined by Claire, Victor's former girlfriend and University classmate, who wants to take a break from her everyday life, leaving behind her husband and baby son, to form again, even for a few days, the traveling trio with her friends.
Miranda
A historical classic drama in three acts, retold after an original prologue about dreams and nightmares of the thirteen-year-old noble heroine, Maria de Noronha.
Boat Master
A touching and tragic real life story about a group of Portuguese fishermen who get caught in the middle of a storm in the Tejo river (Lisbon) and struggle to survive.
Man in Disco
The relationship between António and Ruth ends unexpectedly when Ruth decides to live with Pedro, António's best friend. António doesn't fight back and lets himself drown. From the woods come Violeta and Gaspar, two strange beings, a mixture of fairies, demons and guardian angels, who help António overcome his depression. With the thunders the two characters return to their domains. And life goes on.
Kadaffi
Young Jesus is taken on a vacation by his parents (Rita Blanco, Adriano Luz) to a deserted beach resort. They accidentally fall into overnight wealth after Jesus digs in the sand, uncovering a large drug stash. Others characters intersecting here include an alcoholic actress, a philandering banker, a general trafficking in arms, priests who close their church and head north as hitchhikers, politicians who watch an all-girl production of Julius Caesar, and beggars who recite a children's story in a huge heap of trash.
New film by Luís Costa, based on the novel 'Grito' by Rui Nunes.
"I've been on this cliff for almost a year, here on the lookout. Always aware of the sea and the enemy, even though I've never seen him. The man riding a horse gave me a new order, to be even more on alert, waiting for a mirage, for a ghost that will not come."
Short film that takes us to a very recent past, that is still the present in some regions of Portugal, talking about love and betrayal, rage and regret.
