For a 13-year-old boy like Filipe, the prospect of a summer vacation in the Azores with his father is like a dream come true. But dreams are sometimes just a way to avoid facing reality.
VEGA is a smalltime wiseguy who teams up with the most delinquent smalltime criminals to payback BARBAS the leader of the gang that betrayed him.
Pérola (39 years), a female lawyer, return to Angola, for her younger sister´s “Alambamento” (traditional Angolan ceremony where dowries and promises are exchanged between a couple) more than 20 years living abroad. On coming back, she realises that she does not fit in that environment anymore. The world that saw her come to life is now uncomfortable. In the beginning, she remains apart, watching all her parents do and say in a judgmental way, but as the party unfolds, Pérola starts to see the beauty of the place. That land and it´s People reveal a charm that she was not expecting and suddenly she understands that all her loneliness and emptiness she has felt all those years was only her home beckoning her back.
Two Angola, the colonial and the contemporary, spaced 60 years, share the curse of a mysterious island. In the past, the epicenter of the tragedy is an evil fortress, tomb of revolutionaries deported from the mainland. In the present, the building of a luxurious resort awakens the relentless jaw of justice. Soon after, workmen lacerated dead bodies, begin to appear. The horror spreads rapidly. Pedro Mbala is sent to the island to solve the problem. His target is a pack of stray dogs.
A young Mozambican man named Lourenço comes to Portugal and stays in his brother's place. Meanwhile, a suspicious man named Khossa, who's a friend of Lourenço's brother, offers him a job proposal.
One night, the phone rings in a traditional Portuguese snack bar from the country side. The Spanish Civil Guard is looking for Kunta. He isn't there and till he arrives people speculate about those phone calls and about who is that man. His he a thief? A terrorist?
The Idalecio family is close to imploding emotionally. During the weekly Sunday drive all falls apart. It starts with a claustrophobic car trip through town. Nagging children, football on the radio, a mother in law with a sharp tongue, a new pregnancy. It is a day of unhappiness, a day that will turn around their lives. An anti-Sunday.
Zézé Gamboa's sardonic historical drama follows a good-hearted, apolitical con man who, on the eve of Angolan independence in the mid-1970s, pulls off a massive swindle at the expense of the Portuguese colonial administration — and soon after finds himself hailed as a hero of the national liberation struggle.
How happy and proud they are those two ladies back in Oporto! Thanks to them, their bright nephew can study medicine in Lisbon and may already have become a doctor. Little do they know, not only Vasco wastes all his time drinking, dancing and picking up girls but he has just failed his final exam! And in that same day, he receives an email from the two aunts announcing their visit to Lisbon! Will he be able to make them believe he is such a good student as they think?
In Lisbon, French author Paul meets various people from his past who uncover forgotten memories.
Prosecuting Attorney David Lunga's success is overshadowed by the terrifying secrets of Rosa, a beautiful but mysterious woman with whom he falls in love. What mysteries does she hide? As the macabre facts unravel, David comes face to face with his own demons and is driven to prove his innocence, recover his reputation and, above all, clear his own conscience.
As the summer of 1980 ends, 16 and 17 year old sisters Maria and Alda flee to Lisbon from Angola?s civil war. In the hands of fate, they must learn to live without money in a foreign city. On the edge of the law, the two have to grow up and become women. When the problems are already overwhelming, news comes that makes them unbearable. This blow, however, will give them the push to decide their futures: Alda is going to France and Maria back to Angola in search of her roots.
A boy in Lisbon, in this Lisbon in permanent renovation.
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.
A blind beggar is robbed of his chest of money. The theft leads to a dramatic situation in the street where he begs every day.
We stare at mirrors as if 'image' was a weapon of self-defense. At night, I hide in actors' dressing rooms for a working class experience. By day, I face an old theatre being razed to the ground, making way for a parking lot. Graffitis have curtains, the nose cap of an umbrella arises from a mount of sand. Oh, Happy Days! No need to stage anything! The bulldozer is a dinosaur whose teeth and gracious neck swings by a EU flag. In the boxes, we await the audience. Sometimes, nobody comes. Lost in a symbolic show of reality, I can only watch the world's end because all the endangered species perform and a reflecting labyrinth of life stories breaks through the glass of the Economic Eating Machine. Even when the sky is falling, theatre will always happen. So, choose the right place.
Life has moved too fast for Mane. at the age of 50 he watches the slow sacrifice of his ideals. His wife, Lucy, has locked him in to a daily routine. His work in a small commercial shop and grocer's has worn him out. His dreams have evaporated into the drought of the beaten earth of Mindelo. Now forgotten, with his past as a great football player for Mindelense, in St Vincent in Cape Verde, he only has the belated compassion of his friends, neighbours, and cafe companions: "He was important", "He was the keeper in Cape Verde", "He could have played for Benfica!" Mane rejects the loss of his status as a hero. When training a youth team he sees himself again in KALU, a rebellious but talented youth. He is guided by a whirlwind of thoughts; he was also young, had opportunities, felt the sting of love and wasted his flame. A beaten leather ball shines in his hands once again, Benfica, his club, calls him to the Portuguese Cup Final.
A documentary essay about a text that penetrates lives and lives that penetrate a text. In September 2015 teatro GRIOT - a theatre company based in Lisbon, whose actors are mostly Afro-descendants - started to rehearse Shakespeare's "The Tempest" with acclaimed director Bruno Bravo in a little coastal village. Starting with the first rehearsals the film explores Shakespeare's text and the actors' biographies, between the play and the landscape and brings up topics such as memories, home, emigration and colonialism. A complex mosaic of multiple voices.
Paulo Lima is an engineer responsible for a multinational factory. Due to the recession, the factory receives a visit from the factory's owner's daughter, Luísa, who is sent to increase the factory's profit. Some cuts are due to make.
Portugal, 1968. Salazar, the fascist dictator who reigned the longest time in the world, falls from a chair and suffers a stroke. When he returns to the São Bento mansion to convalesce, he is no longer President of the Council. But no one tells him the truth: not his faithful housekeeper Maria de Jesus, nor his maids Aparecida, Socorro, and Teresinha, nor his personal doctor. For two years he lives under a meticulously constructed illusion, believing he is still President, until his death in 1970.