João Cardoso

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.

A man has to sell the home he has spent such happy times in. His daughters have grown up and left. Reluctantly, he shows the house for some buyers: a young couple with a kid. When they arrive, in love and so happy, the house owner sees a reflection of himself years before. This unexpected glimpse of his past makes handing over somehow easier to bear…

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.

An act of passion, filmed in a church turned into a bar, on Easter 2003, and starring as many actors as the days of the year… Taking the sacred painting as a reference, the film questions the human condition: letting oneself die like Christ or betray scientifically like Peter?

Portugal, finais dos anos 60. Tomás Palma Bravo (Rogério Samora), o Delfim, o Infante, é o herdeiro de um mundo em decomposição. É ele o dono da Lagoa, da Gafeira, de Maria das Mercês (Alexandra Lencastre), sua mulher infecunda, de Domingos, seu criado preto e maneta, de um mastim e de um “Jaguar E”, que o leva da Gafeira a Lisboa e às putas. Um caçador, detective e narrador, que todos os anos volta à Lagoa para caçar patos-reais, descobre, um ano depois, que Domingos apareceu morto na cama do casal Palma Bravo e que Maria das Mercês apareceu a boiar na Lagoa. Quanto a Tomás Palma Bravo e ao mastim, dizem-lhe que desapareceram sem deixar rasto.

An old, rusty freighter enters the harbor on the morning of December 24th. A board brings a clandestine passenger who tries, at night, to jump into the country.

Baseado nos acontecimentos da noite de 24 de Abril de 1974, esta é a história do Golpe de Estado que pôs fim à Ditadura e restaurou a Democracia em Portugal.

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.

A suit and tie dressed gang plays Ska.