João Pedro Bénard

Oscar, a renowned hypnotherapist, uses the last moments in his hotel room to say goodbye to the vertiginous Mercedes and rid old Norberto of his bitterness.

'In the course of my cleaning duties, I examined the belongings of each guest of the hotel and observed through the details, lives that will remain unknown', says the temporary Chambermaid in a large seaside hotel, which, unable to communicate, lives through a rigid methodology of analysis of the exterior and a ritualised quotidian. Until the uncontrollable comes to disrupts this dynamic. Hotel Royal is fragmented and incomplete mosaic of contemporary societies. It could be dubbed a film about the horrors of the soul, about voyeurs or simply about misfits.

Mário, um menino de 8 anos, raptado no interior de Portugal na primavera de 1999, reaparece 12 anos depois numa prisão em Paris. Quem é este rapaz? Onde passou os últimos 12 anos da sua vida?

Alentejo, Portugal, 1950. Em uma região desolada, onde o vento parece falar, onde reina a miséria e a fome sobre os mais pobres, um homem desesperado se vinga daqueles que causaram sua ruína durante a noite mais escura, incapaz de obter honestamente o pão necessário para alimentar sua família durante o dia.

Ramiro is a bookstore owner in Lisbon and a poet in perpetual creative block. He lives, somewhat frustrated, somewhat conformed, between his shop and the tavern, accompanied by his dog, his faithful drinking companions and his neighbors: a pregnant teenager and her grandmother recovering from a stroke. He would gladly continue living this quiet and somewhat anachronistic routine if events worthy of a soap opera did not invade his bubble.

Paulo trabalha como segurança noturno num desactivado complexo industrial. Perdeu a filha em circunstâncias dramáticas e nenhum arrependimento lhe serviria de consolo. Dorme em casa de Luísa e aí testemunha as repetidas transgressões de um vizinho instável. Tudo ameaça estalar.

In 1783, naturalist Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira travelled to Amazonia. Centuries later, all that remains from his Philosophical Journey are the artifacts belonging the tribes he studied and the animals and plants he brought over to Portugal, evoking a distant Amazonia and an expedition that went on for nine years.

Leonor volta de viagem num dia em que o seu pai (Francisco) já não a esperava. No espaço de 24 horas viverão uma realidade alucinada, conduzida, em crescendo, pela inquietação de Francisco num registo de aparente normalidade.

In love with Trás-os-Montes and with his Guide of Portugal as a source of inspiration, Miguel looks for stories for his new documentary. One day, the appearance of a man riding a donkey changes his future.

Cataguases, Minas Gerais, 2005. Depois de um casamento frustrado, que o faz perder o emprego e o contato com o filho, Sérgio de Souza Sampaio (Paulo Azevedo) decide emigrar para Lisboa, Portugal. Lá, corre a lenda, é possível recompor a vida e fazer um bom pé de meia para depois retornar à terra natal, viver de rendimentos e “subir na vida”. Cheio de sonhos, Sérgio parte para Lisboa, onde é confrontado com a dura realidade da imigração: o dia-a-dia, o submundo e as diferenças culturais vão revelar um lugar diferente daquele com que sonhara. Baseado no romance homônimo de Luiz Ruffato.

Uma homenagem ao cinema a pretexto da extraordinária vida de João Bénard da Costa, director da cinemateca portuguesa durante 18 anos mas também actor, cinéfilo, escritor inspirado e leitor criativo. Esta é uma inusual biografia que conta a vida do homem através dos seus amores, medos e contemplações, impressas na arte da pintura, do cinema e literatura.

No qual Xerazade narra como a desolação invadiu os homens: “Oh venturoso Rei, fui sabedora de que uma juíza aflita chorará em lugar de ditar a sua sentença, na noite de três luares. Um assassino em fuga vagueará pelas terras interiores durante mais de quarenta dias e teletransportar-se-à para fugir à Guarda, sonhando com putas e perdizes. Lembrando-se de uma oliveira milenar, uma vaca ferida dirá o que tiver a dizer e que é bem triste! Moradores de um prédio dos subúrbio salvarão papagaios e mijarão em elevadores, rodeados por mortos e fantasmas; mas também por um cão que…”. E vendo despontar a manhã, Xerazade calou-se.

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.

1920s. Vitalino, a small farmer from São Vicente sees his father die of the epidemic which decimated the country. Some years later, of all the brothers, Vitalino is the strongest and takes his father’s place in the house. But the village is too small for his aspirations and he decides to head to Brazil, leaving his sisters in charge of the household. In parallel with Vitalino’s story, If I Were a Thief… I’d Steal portrays the world of Paulo Rocha rummaging through his films and ghosts over the years.

Esta versão da famosa história de “Les Diaboliques” de Barbey d’Aurevilly (1874) apresenta belas músicas clássicas, figurinos e convenções teatrais que resultam em puro cinema. Um rico e decadente homem do mundo conhece uma mulher das ruas excepcional.

Maria, uma médica ucraniana, vem a Portugal passar um ano com Greco, o seu marido, também ele médico. À chegada ao aeroporto de Faro é abordada por agentes do Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras que a levam para uma sala de interrogatórios, sem quaisquer explicações. Tudo isto ocorre pelo facto de as autoridades desconfiarem que algo de ilegal deve estar por detrás daquela viagem, uma vez que ela é da Europa de Leste e o seu marido é senegalês.

Diana é uma adolescente que procura o amor verdadeiro, o tipo de amor que ela reconhece no seu pai, Gabriel, no relacionamento deste com a madrasta, Madalena. No entanto, Diana descobre que Madalena tem um amante, Miguel, e que ela está prestes a abandonar o seu pai por ele. Gabriel cai em depressão e ao vê-lo nesse estado, Diana decide tentar separar Madalena de Miguel. No entanto, durante os seus esforços, Diana encontra o que ela queria, mas no homem que ela mais odeia...

Para o foguete entram, cheios de ponta.

Francisco, comporta-te! Bem sei que hoje fazes 30 anos, que é Carnaval e que vestes de cowboy na festa do colégio, cercado por miúdos que detestas.

Ao chegar a um hotel em Faro, um casal descobre que já não há mesas disponíveis. Quando outro casal aceita dividir a mesa com eles, começam uma conversa sobre a história da cidade — a qual se desenvolve sobre as traições de D. Afonso III, que trai a mulher, e da Moura, que trai o próprio pai.

Ao chegar a um hotel em Faro, um casal descobre que já não há mesas disponíveis. Quando outro casal aceita dividir a mesa com eles, começam uma conversa sobre a história da cidade — a qual se desenvolve sobre as traições de D. Afonso III, que trai a mulher, e da Moura, que trai o próprio pai.

In mid-September 1992, journalist Guida Fontes have to go to Luanda to cover the elections in Angola. In the meantime, she had committed herself to discovering and interviewing the poet Júlio Vera. In 1988, he wrote a series of poems in which he mysteriously anticipated the fall of the USSR. Guida has only 12 days to complete the mission.

In mid-September 1992, journalist Guida Fontes have to go to Luanda to cover the elections in Angola. In the meantime, she had committed herself to discovering and interviewing the poet Júlio Vera. In 1988, he wrote a series of poems in which he mysteriously anticipated the fall of the USSR. Guida has only 12 days to complete the mission.

Vanitas is the new feature film by veteran Portuguese director Paulo Rocha. With a script by Regina Guimarães, the film brings together actresses Isabel Ruth and Joana Bárcia – no strangers to this director's world – in a story about a depressed fashion designer who falls in love with the daughter of one her tailors.

A policeman lunching with his daughter is present when a dead body washes up on shore. He investigates, leading him down a twisted and muddled path of nefarious connections reflecting, somewhat, his own life.

A policeman lunching with his daughter is present when a dead body washes up on shore. He investigates, leading him down a twisted and muddled path of nefarious connections reflecting, somewhat, his own life.

A largely plotless, fado-scored journey through the gloomy cobblestone streets, zombie bars, and fetid basements of a sordid harbor town populated by German-speaking sots and Portuguese guest workers. An unhappy young couple, Leni and Anton, quarrel and split separately into the rat’s ass of the evening. Everyone is looking for love, but no one finds any—although Leni does pick up a trick.

A documentary about a family of goat herders in Portugal and the relationship between man and animals.

Anos 50. Aldeia de Barquinha, margens do Rio Douro. Casada já madura com António, mestre de uma draga regressado de muitos anos no Brasil, Carolina é guarda da passagem-de-nível. Ciumenta, agressiva, tem uma afilhada, Melita, que enfraquece a cabeça dos homens - sobretudo, aqueles que Carolina tem ou traz debaixo de olho. Em especial Zé dos Ouros, um cigano que vende ouro. Até que Carolina comete um crime sanguinário - mata António, uma grande e horrível tragédia, pois ele estava inocente das suas suspeitas.

In the quietness of rural life, small disputes about the right to use a rivulet may take the proportion of a life-and-death matter..

11th century. Descended from the aristocracy, Alexis flees a world dominated by money and strength. The young man, in love with justice and freedom, sets off on the roads to discover the world, abandoning his wife and family.

The story of a child who faces the emptiness that surrounds the figure of his parents, disappeared in Africa.

Xavier returns to Lisbon after a military stint, determined to lead a meaningful life, only to find his world closing in on him.

Xavier returns to Lisbon after a military stint, determined to lead a meaningful life, only to find his world closing in on him.

Freely based on Gide ('Paludes') and Hawthorne ('Wakefield'), this is a film about a writer who never wrote anything and who blows at nightfall the breath of frost. The poem by Carlos Queiroz to which the above sentences belong is not cited in 'O som da Terra a Tremer', but the atmosphere is that, between written letters never received. Fiction within fiction, stories within stories, like those Chinese boxes in which there is always one inside another. Or the two margins of the same river, always being lateral.

A satirical and delirious short which sums up the obsessions of João César Monteiro: film-making and… young women.

Coming from Fundão to Lisboa where he did conscription service, Matias found that the reality of the big city is not exactly how he remembers

Nogueira, a man in his fifties, is a relic of times long past. While the youngsters at the school where he works as a caretaker still think the world is their oyster, Nogueira knows that, for him, most doors have long closed.

Lisbon, 1989. A middle-aged poor man, tormented by an illness, lives in a cheap room in a family boarding house, in the old section of the city's waterfront.

Lisbon, 1989. A middle-aged poor man, tormented by an illness, lives in a cheap room in a family boarding house, in the old section of the city's waterfront.

Laura lives in the country with her considerably older husband. When Nuno, her brother who study in Lisbon, pays a visit, he realizes that his sister does not have a happy life. He initiates a friendship with a worker on the farm. The circumstances turn Laura and Nuno against each other... Portrays the repressed sexuality and homosexual desire in a rural setting and elliptically and delicately the small farming community that serves as the backdrop for the impossible relationships pursued by Laura and her brother.

The young girl, Antónia Margarida Castelo Branco, is handed over by her mother to Brás Telles de Meneses because of the obscure interests between rural aristocratic families in the North. Brás is a ruined man, a bohemian with a reputation for violence and erratic behaviour. Antonia’s fortune is the first sacrifice made by the young wife. Fascinated by the man who humiliates and ill-treats her, she follows him in a pilgrimage to increasingly barren lands, to increasingly less hospitable houses.

The young girl, Antónia Margarida Castelo Branco, is handed over by her mother to Brás Telles de Meneses because of the obscure interests between rural aristocratic families in the North. Brás is a ruined man, a bohemian with a reputation for violence and erratic behaviour. Antonia’s fortune is the first sacrifice made by the young wife. Fascinated by the man who humiliates and ill-treats her, she follows him in a pilgrimage to increasingly barren lands, to increasingly less hospitable houses.

12-year-old Miguel is punished because he has not done his homework properly: he must stay at his aunt's inn for holidays. First bored, then a friendship begins between him and other inn's regular holiday-makers, like maid Luisa or fisherman João. But doctor Fernando's arrival is going to overwhelm the place's peaceful life and to change Miguel's mind.

When the child Manuel wanders into a garden that is off-limits to him, he meets an unidentified fisherman, and another boy -- the boy is actually himself several years down the road. Manuel experiences three different versions of his encounters in the garden, revealing that fate can have several twists and turns in one's life, depending on decisions that are made early on.

Porque todos os filmes reflectem, de algum modo, quem os faz, Oxalá não foge à regra. Só que, aqui, o cinema assume esse facto, acentua uma certa confessionalidade mostra-se. O lado simpático de Oxalá é essa disponibilidade. É muito claro que este é um filme que se sente mal na sua pele portuguesa do final dos anos 70, que vive fixado, adolescentemenre, na França da Nouvelle Vague. O seu exilado que atravessa, entre o perto e a distância os anos de Abril é, por isso, mais um estrangeiro que um compatriota, alguém cujo descentramento, em relação à realidade portuguesa, é total. Daí que nenhum dos seus gestos tenha consequências, daí que, visivelmente, ele não esteja disposto a pagar nenhum preço pela vida, nem se quer o preço do amor. Dai a impotência. O equívoco.