Once upon a time, the last days of 2028. This world’s disarray, no more no less than ever. Accommodate, adapt, evolve. The inability to live. The endless survival. Angela, a retired history teacher, has long lived in voluntary isolation, locked in an apartment in Lisbon. All her life, she refused conventions. Today, on Christmas Eve, she is faced with a “trivial” decision. Hospitality.
The earth, life and death, indifference and affection, abandonment, faith. Words and silence, light and shadow, the endless survival, the inability to love. A trilogy set in 2017, 2028, 2037. Three women of different generations and backgrounds cross paths; their tentative steps to fully exist evoke fragments of stories, bringing real life experiences and events into each character.
An adaptation of the short story with the same name by Portuguese writer Lídia Jorge.
Barão
North of Italy, the von Kettens dispute the forces of the Episcopate of Trent. Herr Ketten seeks marriage in a distant country, Portugal. After their honeymoon journey back home, Ketten leaves again for the war. Eleven years elapsed… Rumours are running about the presence of that 'foreigner' in the castle. Some say she's a heretic. Until one day, the Bishop of Trento ends up dying and, with the signature of peace, falls the background of von Ketten's life. Will the Portuguese win, where death seems to be moving in?
Capelão
In 1971, António Lobo Antunes' life is brutally interrupted when he is drafted into the Portuguese Army to serve as a doctor in one of the worst zones of the Colonial War – the East of Angola. Away from everything dear he writes letters to his wife while he is immersed in an increasingly violent setting. While he moves between several military posts he falls in love for Africa and matures politically. At his side, an entire generation struggles and despairs for the return home. In the uncertainty of war events, only the letters can make him survive.
Jorge de Sena was forced to leave his country. First he moved to Brazil, and later to the USA. He never returned to Portugal. During his 20-year-long exile, he kept an epistolary correspondence with Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. These letters are a testimony of the profound friendship between the two poets, letters of longing and of desire to “fill years of distance with hours of conversation”. Through excerpts and verses, a dialog is established, revealing their divergent opinions but mostly their strong bond, and their efforts to preserve it until their last breaths.
Duke
Roberto is one of those men to whom simulation has become the greatest art. He is an unmoved, inscrutable, mysterious man. But the truth is that Robert feels an intimate, deep tedium. The boredom of those who have already exhausted all the pleasures of life. The only thing still surprising him is the fact that nothing surprises him anymore. One evening he has an overwhelming encounter with a woman. For his own bewilderment, he discovers the sublime horrors in which the woman has sank.
Jornalista
Telenovela star Mariana is on the verge of a nervous breakdown: shooting is not going smoothly, her popularity is waning, and she is forever being hounded by paparazzi. Frustrated, Mariana can't find out who is responsible for these invasions of her privacy. It is the feared 'Paparazzo' Gabriela Santos, who's real name is Juan. One day, Juan and Mariana meet by chance and fall in love. Now Juan must do everything he can to prevent Mariana from discovering his true identity.
Carteiro
Lourenço is the son of Francisco Figueiredo, a soccer coach in the beginning of a very promising career. Everything goes well: Francisco's team is in the Portuguese Cup final and Lourenço is going to be class valedictorian in a very prestigious private high school. But everything starts to collapse. Francisco is fired and Lourenço must transfer to a public high school whose students are predominantly from a ghetto near Lisbon. While Lourenço is fighting to fit into a new and harsh reality, he also helps his father find his lost dignity. Hope is a strange place.
Sérgio
April 1974 saw the fall of a long lasting dictatorship. The young democracy developed in the midst of much social and political turmoil. The armed wing of a leftist group changed the future of one family - the father disappears without trace, the mother denies their past, and the son grows up with unanswered questions. As a young man, Pedro is determined to reach for answers, aided by his apparently batty grandmother. Collecting clues and meeting people who would rather prefer to remain forgotten. His inner journey leads him Portugal to Spanish through the deserted roads of Alentejo. Pedro will find himself, but there is a price to pay.
Homme torturé
Werner Schroeter directed this dark and surreal tale of a man determined to save a lost lover from a grim fate at the hands of a violent mob. The city of Santa Maria is falling into chaos as an armed military faction is poised to take power in a coup d'etat. Ossorio used to call Santa Maria home, and he has returned in its darkest hour to find the woman he loves, hoping to rescue her from the violence that is lurks around the corner. As Ossorio searches for his love, he meets Victoria in a shabby hotel, who in turn introduces him to her father Barcala, who for the right price is willing to take Ossorio and another passenger away on his boat. While Ossorio is willing to pay Barcala what he wants, can he find the mysterious woman before the ship sets sail?
