Bishop
Torturado aos 21 anos pela Inquisição por crime de judaísmo, Antonio José da Silva (1704-1736), nascido no Brasil e chamado de 'o judeu', redescobre o sentimento da vida através do teatro de marionetes. Casa com Leonor Maria de Carvalho, cristã-nova como ele, e freqüenta os salões aristocráticos dos 'iluministas' que o apóiam. Uma denúncia de heresia contra sua prima Brites Eugênia e o espírito irreverente das comédias desse 'Molière' português do século XVIII levam Antonio José, mais uma vez, aos cárceres do Santo Ofício junto com a mãe, Lourença Coutinho, e sua mulher.
This symbolic drama from director Benoit Jacques underscores the characters' human need for affection. Children steal lemons for the thrill, while women steal other women's men from them just to prove they can. Drug smuggling, clandestine love affairs, and two lovers involved with the production of Shakespeare's Othello carry on with their own off-stage tragedy.
An aristocratic Sicilian family living in the 1950s. Count Villafratti has sex one night with his nymphomaniac daughter because he thinks she is his wife.
Guest
In a unique approach to what amounts to four pseudo-morality plays, director Monique Rutler has a street entertainer with hand puppets summarize the characters and idea of each story. The first sketch is about a young man who shines shoes for a living, and tries to keep up a relationship with two women while convincing each she is his only true love. The next story is about a man who beats up his wife when he is drunk, and sells furs for a living. One day, as she is riding in the back of his truck with the furs, he hits a bad patch and she and some furs fall out. The question is, will the woman be enterprising and leave the jerk - or not? The third tale concerns a woman looking into how much control a prostitute has over her clients, and to really find out, she becomes a prostitute herself for awhile - leading to some quite unexpected situations. The last segment handles the uglier side of the life styles of the rich and famous.
Augusto, o Criado / Barquilheiro
Hipólito is a self-made man, who went up in life in devious ways, and used for profit the social turmoil when Portugal changed from a monarchy into a republic, and then to a military regime. Finally, he is forced into exile. Back in 1935 to family, friends, and lovers, he is in a mix-mesh of lies, and scheming, again.
Priest
A história duma cidade - Miranda do Douro - e dos seus habitantes, vítimas duma catástrofe no dia 8 de Maio de 1762.
Morrem cerca de trezentas e cinquenta a quatrocentas pessoas, destroem-se casas e há muitos feridos.
A guerra, exterior àquela gente, vitima-a da pior maneira, pelo inesperado - o acidente.
A cidade era um importante objectivo militar, e terá destruição provocada por uma explosão na sua praça forte...
South-African
This documentary shows a typical Sunday in Mozambique's capital, tourist main attractions, an inquest in Lisbon about the perception of the people in the street about what life was like in that African colony (or, as the Government had it then, "province"), and then interviews and scenes of Lourenço Marques fishermen and a bar waitresses. African folk music and dance were used as documents and background for the text narration.
