Mário Espada

Just after the Second World War, 5,000 young children were sent from Austria to stay with host families in Portugal, where they could recover from the violence of war. They were often welcomed in by well-to-do families with domestic staff living in sunny villas, and for most of the children this was a holiday in paradise. The contrast with their living conditions at home, and the huge difference between the lives of rich and poor in Portugal in this period, made a deep impression on the young Austrians.

Just after the Second World War, 5,000 young children were sent from Austria to stay with host families in Portugal, where they could recover from the violence of war. They were often welcomed in by well-to-do families with domestic staff living in sunny villas, and for most of the children this was a holiday in paradise. The contrast with their living conditions at home, and the huge difference between the lives of rich and poor in Portugal in this period, made a deep impression on the young Austrians.

It's summer in the Portuguese countryside, where the local festivities take place. Chico is haunted by a hate crime committed in his village against a boy who was secretly close to him. Throughout this journey, Chico, pressured by his friends, tries both to follow their social standards and to hide his fears and desires.

In an abandoned shopping center, Luis sees his best friend being assaulted. Incapable of facing it he runs away from the adolescent violence that haunts him while struggling against himself.

A young woman returns to Lisbon to meet her ex-boyfriend after a stay in Berlin. While trying to resettle the old relationship, she gradually realizes that the emotional and physical dependance is the only element that bonds them.

In the middle of the Atlantic, Helena rekindles an old friendship with Ceu, an astrophysicist who recently relocated to the Azorean island of Santa Maria to study exoplanets. Caught between the island’s geological inheritance and the vastness of the cosmos, the two friends reconcile with the various space exploration infrastructures that are stationed on the island. A work of science-fiction inspired by the various space resources currently existing in Santa Maria, See You Later Space Island is a loose tale of friendship and endurance.