Paulo De Sousa

When Hitler invaded Europe, three million Jews fled south. Under The Sky is a narrated movie about this exodus illustrated by film archives and interviews with eight eighty-year-old individuals, all of whom were children back then and now give voice to the trip that millions of Jews had to take in order to escape the Nazis.

Com Que Voz is a documentary that recounts the life of Alain Oulman, an important cultural figure during the nineteen-sixties and seventies, who left an indelible mark on Portuguese and French society. The film, shot in Lisbon, Paris and Tel Aviv, features celebrated authors, politicians and musicians, such as: Patricia Highsmith, Amos Oz, Amalia Rodrigues and Mario Soares.

Dawn is breaking into day. Fair day. As in every year. But this is a year of mourning. "It doesn't look right!" Vera says to her sister. And her mother-in-law looks at her and remembers the dead son. Remembrance is a silence between the two of them. Children's voices come from outside. Lucia wants to go to the fair with her uncle and cousin. "You promised!" claims the daughter. Vera consents in letting her go. Lucia waves her hand as the tractor drives away. Chance, once again. An accident. Death, always so close, so alive.

Documentary about African freedom fighter Amílcar Cabral, whose story is told by his relatives and friends. Amílcar, besides being a humanist and nationalist, was also a brilliant poet.

This standard slice-of-life drama is about Dju Dibonga (Richard Courcet), a young man who leaves his home on Cabo Verde, an island of Portuguese dependency off the coast of Africa, to go to Luxembourg and search for his father. Far from his home village and unfamiliar with the large city, the young black man forms an unlikely friendship with a down-and-out white policeman whose only consolation in life is found at the bottom of a bottle. Their developing companionship forms the main focus of this movie directed by Pol Cruchten.

Lena disappears mysteriously during the winter of 1976. This is the last stop on a journey that begins in colonial Mozambique on new year's eve at 1957 gives way to 1958. Ningo, a black boy brought up by Lena's parents, and her childhood friend, comes to Lisbon to help find her, at the request of Lena's mother. Using the letters that Lena has left behind as a testament to her life, in wich she has rebelled against the challenged the powers that be, Ningo discovers the identity of her kidnapper - Jorge Matos - a former secret policeman who has followed her from Lourenço Marques, motivated by morbid desire. Lena's kidnapper dies from two inexplicable snake bites to the neck, in accordance with a legend and ritual that had been part of Lena and Ningo's childhood.

Cape Verde, 1964. At the feet of a mighty volcano, the traditional Cape Verdean society is undergoing a steady change. The old land-owning aristocracy is disintegrating. A class of "mulattos" begins to emerge, with a trade-based financial power that threatens the landlords. A new identity arises, a mix of old and new, of African and Portuguese culture, sensual and dynamic. The songs of Cesária Évora follow this inevitable transformation. From the novel by Henrique Teixeira de Sousa.

Pregnant girl in trouble teams up with a young boy to find the mother of the boy.

A beautiful, intelligent and flirtatious young girl, Yonta, is secretly in love with a friend of her parents, Vicente, a hero of the war of independence. Vicente is unaware of her passion as she is of the love of a young man who sends her anonymous love letters.

This odd film is a major representative of an even odder film genre: direct-to-celluloid opera. It was commissioned by the Portuguese master of style, director Manoel de Oliveira from composer João Paes. Musically, it ranges from 19th-century romanticism to popular, modernist and even "post-modernist" styles. In the initially tame story, a host-narrator tells the story of a wedding between the two lovebirds: Viscount d'Aveleda and the beautiful Marguerite. However, what happens in the bridal chamber is incredibly bizarre. The events after that are even stranger (the film out-does even Luis Buñuel in that department), and the wedding guests and family indulge in cannibalism, among other perversions.

A young woman, working as sales-girl at a shopping center's music shop, wants someone with whom to share her secrets. A distant mother separating from her father, an aunt who emigrated to France, and her pre-adolescent sister, can't do - neither the boyfriend. Such a confident arrives unexpectedly - but then there are three of them, one too much. One leaves, but then another young man arrives, and there are three again. One must go. A sad young adult love story, told in the first person, singular - and ultimately alone, under the rain.