Joana Bárcia

Uma história vulcânica. Traição, roubo e fuga, perseguição e vingança. Amor, solidão e morte.

João still lives at home with his parents. With absolutely no idea what to do with his life, he leaves the city centre to hang out in the outskirts. The abandoned factory where he spends his days is the lingering echo of a better past. What lies ahead seems worse as João comes face to face with the failure of youth.

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.

The story of Carla and Marta, the daughter who is seriously ill. In Barcelona, Carla discovers a special mirror, which is an open door to the past: it keeps the reflection for several years instead of returning it immediately. Carla offers her daughter the mirror and it will change their lives forever.

Guilherme and Sofia, brother and sister, grow up sharing experiences and slowly discovering their sexuality. The thing that Sofia doesn't know is how far Guilherme will go to keep her inside his own perverse, dark and perfect circle.

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.

Ricardo Monteiro is a successful television producer specialising in reality shows. He is 45 years old and he has just received an award for the most popular television show of the year, when he receives an ultimatum from his 18-year-old daughter Leonor. If he does not come home that same evening to celebrate her birthday he will never see her again. Ricardo is distracted by business or other commitments and he is too late for the last flight home. When he returns next day the apartment is empty and Leonor is gone. At first Ricardo thinks that it is only a game, but there are no phone calls or messages and after a while he gets worried and starts looking for her. He discovers that she has quit school without telling him and that she has lost all contact with her old friends. She has become a complete stranger.

A boy in Lisbon, in this Lisbon in permanent renovation.

Set in the Lisbon during the festivities of Saint Anthony, the patron saint of lovers and the old town. The story is about Cato, a nationalist politician who is charismatic and unscrupulous. He obsessively pursues Silvia, a mystical and mysterious young transvestite whom he meets at the festival. When Silvia runs into Vicente, a policeman who arrests transvestites and threatens them, Silvia must look towards blackmail to save herself. Compromising photos of Cato start to emerge among opposition parties and he must do all in his power to save his political career.

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.

Podemos dizer que Jorge é um homem feliz. Chega a casa no fim de um dia com muitos problemas, como todos os outros. Nessa noite vai se encontrar com um industrial japonês negociar um novo emprego, para abandonar o seu atual de professor e voltar a trabalhar como químico. Mas, ao regressar, encontra alguém em casa. Alguém que não conhece. A partir daí tudo vai ser diferente.

Numa vila alentejana uma rapariga do liceu, Mitó, é a principal suspeita da morte do seu namorado, um alemão da Base Aérea de Beja. Um jornalista e um fotógrafo de um jornal de Lisboa tentam, localmente, colher informações, testemunhos e elementos sobre um caso que está longe de ser simples. Na verdade, cada um tem uma versão muito pessoal dos factos e os diversos pontos de vista revelam-se contraditórios. Os dois jornalistas acabam por ir, inesperadamente, ao encontro de uma história de amor e morte no coração do Alentejo.

Emilia is a writer, living in Lisbon in the year 1959. She is the “Damsel Warrior”, a fictional woman composed from the literary universes of Maria Judite de Carvalho and Irene Lisboa, writers of the city and the characters that inhabit it.