Joaquim Nicolau

Film biography dwelling on the hectic artistic life of António Variações, a famous Portuguese pop rock singer from the 80s, who died from AIDS-related complications in 1984.

The film is liberally inspired by the period when Eça de Queiroz was Portuguese Consul in Cuba, when still a Spanish colony. Eça de Queiroz struggles against local authorities in his defense of Chinese workers, brought to the sugar plantations by greedy middlemen and exploited as slaves. Two parallel stories unfold, that of a Chinese girl which Eça de Queiroz saves from the clutches of one of the island’s most powerful slave owners, and the other of a romance involving a young American woman on holidays in Havana.

Manuel Teixeira Gomes the Portuguese President who left everything behind with only one premise: become who he really wanted to be

The story revolves around Anastácio, a supporter of Leões de Alcochete and Mr. Barata, a supporter of Inferno Futebol Clube. One day, the two teams face each other. Which team will win?

The story of Maria, a woman betrayed by his companion, David, when he steals a sack of money and flees, taking refuge in the island of Pico. Furious and determined to avenge herself, she proposes to an Police Inspector, Lucas, to chase and to find David. However, David, on a visit to the island of Faial, falls in love with a local, Marina. Maria and Lucas look for David in the Azores, they cross with Mariana in Faial and the three will discover David in his house of the mountain, at the top of the Peak. In a final confrontation, as in a Greek tragedy, Mary and David adjust the accounts that fate has traced to them.

A New age remake of a portguese classic, Pátio das Cantigas shows the lives of a neighbourhood in the Old Lisbon, including their desires, happiness and sadness, always with a good humour.

After a hard life of chasing nazis, Jacob Cohn is on his death bed. Recently, he found that one of the most bloodiest nazis, who almost killed him in a concentration camp, is hiding in Portugal. Friederich Haas was known also as the Dachau Dentist for pulling the teeth of the prisoners mouth, one by one, just for fun. Without alternatives, being to weak to go after him, Jacob sends his pacifist and shy grandson, Jean Luc to finish his last mission. Jean Luc has to go to Portugal and bring Friederich Haas' teeth to his grandfather.

Jô is kicked out of home by his father on his birthday. Having no place to go, he takes refuge in the terrace of Rose, who just lost her husband.

Tó-Quim is a seemingly ordinary teenager, until the day he joins a band of black metal, the hand of a friend and Anita knows the drummer for who ends up falling in love.

In the 17th century a warrior woman fights for the independence of Angola. After witnessing the murder of her son and watching her people being humiliated by Portuguese colonizers, Njinga will become a Queen and struggle for their liberation embodying the motto: those who stay fight to win.

Portugal, 2013, election day. The 'Troika' and the IMF have ruined the country. A patriot man will make a difference. Even if against...everyone.

This is the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a man of conviction who saved 30,000 lives during WWII, in June 1940. Among them were10,000 Jews. As the Portuguese General Consul stationed in Bordeaux, France, he issued 30,000 visas for safe passage to Portugal. He defied the direct orders of his government and exhibited courage, moral rectitude, unselfishness, and self-sacrifice by issuing visas to all refugees regardless of nationality, race, religion or political opinions.This narrative film expresses his heroic actions towards humanity, which will perpetuate his legacy of justice for a new generation. In 1966, Yad Vashem named him Righteous Among the Nations. He is considered to have achieved the largest single rescue operation of World War II.

When the fate of small Julinho crosses with Chantel, a transvestite who prostitutes herself, begins a tour on the history of a prince who was a queen in part-time. But to what extent can the fantasy prevail when confronted with reality?

A group of former university college students reunites in the city where they graduated at, to attend the funeral of one from their group. In fulfilling his last dying wish, the group goes on a journey of self discovery about the true essence of friendship and life. However they haven't been together in 10 years...

Peter McShade is a hitman. A job goes wrong when he kills the nephew of a Mafia Boss in Morocco.

Two amateur thieves are hired to steal an extremely valuable Van Gogh painting from the abandoned farm of an Argentinian countess.

Anna is a famous striptease dancer who falls for her body without shame. She is accused of theft and questioned the commissioner Lourenço, being dazzled by their strength, independence and freedom. The man will be caught by the passionate desire and the fatal attraction that she causes.

In 1970, a man is tortured and murdered by the regime's secret police. Now nearly 40 years later, his friend, who had also been tortured, recognizes the man he deems responsible for the murder of his friend. Along with three old friends and the victim's daughter, they kidnap the man and take him to an isolated house. Once there, the concepts of justice and revenge begin to mix dangerously in a private trial with irreversible consequences.

"Filme da Treta" is inspired in a previous work called "Conversa da Treta", which can be translated as "Blather" or "Foolish Talk". In fact it all begun with a radio show (with that name) where two friends, "Toni" and "Zezé", talk about their lives and their neighbourhood (located somewhere in a typical district of Lisbon!). Because of the colloquial and comic language it used to be funny. Then it passed to the stage (kind of a dialog play) and later to a TV-show. As you can see it was a success here in Portugal and the audiences applauded it… Now, the film! "Filme da Treta" is, then, just an adaptation to the movies of this succeeded show, but it was, at least in my point of view, a regression! To be honest it was a disappointment, as I expected a lot more from it. I used to appreciate "Conversa da Treta", but now with the movie it lost all the fun!

A baby is kidnapped in a Brazilian airport. Years later, the mother lives in Lisbon and works in a strip-tease bar so she can survive. When she is fired, she joins a gang of bank robbers...

France, 17th century, during the reign of Louis XIII. When a dear friend, the Duke of Nevers, is treacherously assassinated by a powerful relative, a skilled swordsman, the noble Henri de Lagardère, seeks his rightful vengeance as he tries to protect the innocent life of the duke's last heir.

Every year, four ex-soldiers who call themselves "Os Imortais" ("The Immortals"), get together with four women to celebrate their war deeds and remember the old days, back in the war. On the summer of 1985, tired of their monotonous lives, they decide to rob a bank. Joaquim Malarranha, a chief inspector from the local police force who is about to retire, crosses their path and chooses to spend his last days of duty trying to solve the robbery. But as he carries on with his investigation, he discovers more than he could have ever imagined...

After the death of her father, the model Alix Castelac discovers that she must share the will, and the family property, with a half-sister hidden by the name of Noémie Boileau, a truck driver.

A group of innocent hostages is left to their own deaths facing a clockwork bomb, while the whole country watches them on the TV.

Adapted from a best-selling novel by Frédéric Dard. Agnès Taride has a closet full of skeletons. A beautiful woman, accustomed to using her body to get what she wants, she persuades her lover to murder her ex-husband for the life insurance money that will otherwise go to her daughter when she reaches her upcoming 18th birthday. The murder attempt goes awry, and not only does the ex survive, but a witness calls on his underworld connections to avenge the attack on his friend. From here, the plot and counter-plot become ever more complicated, with blackmail, kidnap, murder, seduction and suicide on the agenda, and a surprise twist in the ending.

A portuguese officer, supposedly dead in a mine explosion, is captured by the african guerrilla in Guiné (former portuguese colony) while his beloved wife Laura remain inconsolable in Portugal trying to believe that Jorge is still alive. Meanwhile an old Laura friend, a lieutenant, tries to convince Laura that Jorge is dead. Eduardo has always been a secret Laura lover. The romance between them is however darkened with the phantom shadow of Jorge hanging over them..

Story of the 1974 coup that overthrew the right-wing Portuguese dictatorship--which continued the fascist policies of long-time dictator Antonio Salazar--and of two young army captains who were involved in it.

Two sons dream of the return of their father who left fifteen years earlier, and all this time without any sign of life...

After a sink full of soapy water empties through a gurgling drain, a finger appears from underneath: Zé, a plumber, is at work. Eva, the lady of the house, interrupts him wearing little but a smile. She coaxes him out and seduction begins, interrupted by the surprise arrival of her lover, Carlão, a gun-toting criminal. Zé hides under the sink, watching through the drain hole as Carlão gives Eva a valuable necklace and makes love to her. Carlão is called away abruptly on business only to have his enemy Zim arrive a minute later to claim the necklace. Zé's still under the sink observing as mayhem descends on the kitchen. Will it end with a bang or a whimper?

The life of the Angolan community at Lisbon in the 90s

A priest struggles with his religious beliefs as he sees his countrymen murdered in Nazi occupied Italy and as he becomes attracted to a woman operating in the resistance.

Portugal, late 1940's. André must leave the country after running away from prison. In Oporto some friends get him a guide, Lambaça, a smuggler who knows very well the Trás-os-Montes border from Portugal to Spain.