Márcia Breia

Before Dawn charts the years of exile in the life of famous Jewish Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, his inner struggle for the "right attitude" towards the events in war torn Europe and his search for a new home.

A family with a long history (and many members) gathers around a table in a mansion in southern Portugal. The region has transformed from a depressed area into a thriving tourist destination. Kisses, hugs, and greetings quickly turn into complaints and reproaches surrounding the big issue: What should be done with Daddy’s house? It is a tempting piece of cake, laden with rich family memories. But progress cannot be stopped.

Between February and July 1858, in the Massabielle cave, the Virgin appeared eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous, a miserable little girl from Lourdes. A true revolution in the heart of the Second Empire that shakes the established order by his universal message of love and prayer.

Two years after consorting with the wrong people cost him his job as public prosecutor, Eduardo Silva is a measly defense attorney, who works from his hotel room. Loosing a bit from her fellow-angler uncle, he gives a shot as unpaid apprentice to freshly-graduated gypsy Marcia Amaya, whom nobody would consider hiring so far, but is soon offered crossing to the office of Silva's successor as prosecutor. Their first client is common-as-muck Joana Soares, accused of murdering her beached-up husband after a public fight, without an alibi, claiming a blackout. Eduardo is countered while working out, with help from Marcia's and Joana's families, how the affair actually relates to illegal trade in medicine, with twists including the involvement of a crime lord.

The journey of 11 women while they go on a pilgrimage from Bragança to Fatima.

Vera, a single mother with two small children, is forced to have two jobs to survive after her children's father has disappeared. She works as a cashier at a supermarket by day and at night works in a strip club, trying not only to raise her children but also to pay off the debts that her ex-partner left her. Harassed in both jobs, one day she reacts violently when a nightclub client is more daring, being sentenced in court to perform community service in a nursing home, where her irreverence and youth will clash with the authoritarianism and inhumanity of the director. For the elderly who live in the nursing home, Vera is a breath of fresh air that little by little will change their lives, becoming the true home fairy…

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.

Fernando Pessoa, one of the greatest writers in Portuguese, created an immense parallel world and several heteronyms so as to endure the loneliness of genius. José Saramago, 1998 Nobel Laureate in Literature, has a heteronym, Ricardo Reis, return to Portugal after a 16-year exile in Brazil. 1936 is a perilous year with Mussolini’s fascism, Hitler’s Nazism, Spain’s Civil War and Salazar’s New State in Portugal. And Fernando Pessoa meets his creation, Reis. Two women, Lídia and Marcenda, are Reis’ carnal and impossible passions. “Life and Death as one” allows for literature and cinema.

Redheaded twins Armando and Beatriz always dreamed of being firefighters but during a rainy, uneventful winter they find themselves spending less time putting out infernos than they do helping neighbors who’ve locked themselves out of their apartments. This is how Armando meets a pretty young woman with whom he begins a tentative courtship. But soon a rift grows between the siblings and, spurred by Armando’s exaggerated stories about his nascent relationship, Beatriz begins experiencing aural hallucinations that can only be remedied through music and, finally, the love of a stranger. Pinto made this impassioned fairy tale as part of a series of films about the four elements. - FilmLinc

Alexandra Lencastre plays a woman who believes she is President of the U.S.A.

A fanciful biopic of legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini as a very young man.

The life of Fabio and Miá falls into the rut when differences, which are not few, need to be faced. After Fábio forget the third wedding anniversary, Miá decides to ask for a time in the relationship. When Fábio's grandfather, who lives in Portugal, tells him that he was a widower, he sees on this trip to the funeral an opportunity to save his marriage.

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.

Spino, a pathologist, receives an unidentified body which looks familiar to him... himself, 30 years younger.

No description available.

In Lisbon, French author Paul meets various people from his past who uncover forgotten memories.

A wealthy landowner, "The Dauphin," enjoys a decadent life of hunting, drinking, and womanizing. He oversees his estate, the Laguna, with his barren wife, his one-armed manservant, and his treasured guard dog. When a sportsman (the film’s narrator) comes to the estate for his annual duck-hunting excursion, he discovers the body of the landowner’s wife floating in the lagoon and the manservant dead on his master’s bed. The Dauphin and his dog are nowhere to be found except for the mysterious barking sounds heard over the lagoon.

Michèle is the new French consul in a South American country. She quickly discovers that the government is, in fact, a dictatorship. Moreover, her seventeen-year-old daughter is involved in the revolution against the regime.

Lúcia is an independent woman who lives alone in Lisbon. Her father commits suicide leaving her a message on phone recorder, revealing a letter he wrote. However Lúcia can't find it in her father's house. On that visit she ends up meeting with her mother, a known political activist with whom she has a distant and tense relationship. In hope of finding the letter, Lúcia leaves to the farm where she grew up, on an isolated location. There she reencounters Álvaro, an old childhood companion, who shares a little life time he has left between roses and the piano, and the guardian angel that follows and protects her through nocturnal wanderings.

Fernanda, António and Quim are travelling by train to a provincial Portuguese industrial city. Fernanda, a teacher, agrees to replace a pregnant colleague. António is returning to the home he was forced to flee long ago, accused of setting fire to the Duarte’s factory. At the station he bumps into Mariana who is in love of him. António is not welcome and is violently attacked by a group connected to Duarte ...

No description available.

One night on Viva FM's late night show, host Vitor Lobo gets a phone call from an old friend.

A teen girl is wrongfully suspected for a crime. A former cop helps her to proof her innocence. There's only one problem : her behavior brings the two of them more than once in trouble.

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

At the end of the seventeenth century, in Naples, still dominated by the Spaniards, a young pupil, Balthasar,is castrated to preserve the purity and beauty of his voice. The Duchess dies and her son, the Duke of Arcos, takes charge of the inheritance, which includes Balthasar. With the entrance of Maria Loffredo, former lover of the Duke, a triangle is established that unchains tragic consequences to the allegedly callous life of Balthasar.

Northern Portugal. An imposing residence with its garden and magnolia tree. As we know, home is a place that film, this outdoor art, has often used to depict less the joys of family life than a pernicious space. André Gil Mata has made it his stage, with its rooms, its furniture, what plays out there and what has already played out there. From one room to another, from one era to another, the film delves deep into this enclosed space, a kind of suffocating box.

A teenage girl, Norah (Marie Kremer), living with her depressed father, Jean-Michel (Thierry Lefevre), in Luxembourg, obsesses over the whereabouts of her missing mother, who left them both when Norah was still a newborn. Norah is a misfit and devotes her energy to helping others and conversing with an imaginary friend. But, when she receives information pertaining to the possible location of her mother, Norah has to seriously think about inviting the woman back into her life.

Lisbon Attorney and former DA Eduardo Silva never got over the death, two years ago, of his wife valentine in a car crash. When he and his gypsy assistant Marcia Amaya hear crime baron Tiago Zarco is arrested having been found over the corpse of the massive pharmaceutical fraud case, she's surprised like the DA that Eduardo offers to defend Zarco, who accepts while keeping his uncooperative right hand-lawyer on, even if that solves their law firm's dire financial state. Silva seems prepared to risk his lawyer license for vengeance on the monster who had an affair with Valentina, yet refuses to look away from indications that Zarco hasn't committed or ordered the murder, but sets a risky trap for those fiends, which proves extremely difficult and dangerous.

An adaptation of two short stories by Passos Coelho, essentially shot in a valley that is a territory threatened by floods, the film is a cinematographic chronicle of the rural worker in the area of Montemor-o-Velho.

Manuel bids farewell to his routine and boards a 15th century vessel under pirate law. Treason on board triggers a series of terrible events our protagonist overcomes while keeping his moral principles intact.

A young French actress in Lisbon to shoot a movie is intrigued by a nun she sees kneeling in the chapel where she is filming.

Neglected by his parents, a portly teenager finds refuge with a gang of young thugs in Lisbon.

In today's Alentejo, a story of love and death based in a real criminal case.

Irene is an agent for an insurance company. She is given the job of investigating the disappearance of an elderly librarian in a provincial town. During her investigations she meets a history teacher - Ricardo - who knew the librarian and is interested in local legends. Irene happens to hear about a very old medieval castle which, according to legend, has a secret entrance that opens mysteriously on Christmas night as the clock strikes twelve.

On the Paris-Lisbon train, Marina has just accidentally killed her ‘friend’ Bruno during an argument. Rushing down the aisle, she meets Prune, who is looking for her father. The two young women hit it off and arrive in Lisbon...

In the time of King Leonardo, a war and the plague that accompanied it depopulated Traslândia. Ignoring these tragic events, Queen Isménia, Princess Camila and lady-in-waiting Narcisa, coming from a distant kingdom, arrive in Traslândia, when the war approaches the end.

After having been in jail, Manuel becomes a bullfighter following dangerously his father's steps.

He and she don't know each other. They randomly meet at a gas station, while drifting. "Where are we going? Far away. Where is that? Near."

In oPorto there is a club, Imperatriz, where everything is permitted. A moment in which all intersect in the dark night.

Twenty years ago, Henrique left Portugal for the peaceful Netherlands. A colonial war veteran, he desperately wanted to get away from his country which still defended a doomed African empire and from his traditional, landowning family. He’s back now. Everything is different. «Europe» knocked on the door and sprawled itself fast. Even the South had to face wrenching changes. And Henrique himself will have to face many events. Love affairs and dangerous threats. And the chalenge of his future.

Maria spends her daytime sewing and cleaning, while at night she works as a prostitute in Oporto's streets. Years ago her path crossed with José, a married man who became her most faithful client but who couldn't help her to escape the hard life. Today this old prostitute continues showing off her body through the long city's nights, though the clients are almost gone. José is still there, but he failed at what she desired the most: a son. In a very intimate and raw portray of a woman, MARIA disclosures how love and getting older can feels like.

One day, an old water pipe caused a ceiling leak. On this ceiling, toxic mushrooms of the order Polypo- rales would grow. Sitting on the toilet, the lady of this house looks up and observes that magical and mys- terious fungus, which is not an animal, nor a plant. The mushroom is the future, she thought.

Ronaldo is Brazilian, from good families and has a problem. His left hand is nailed to his father's table. The reason: Ronaldo has been abusing cocaine which has led him to accumulate debt. Their executioners did not forgive the fact that they had to travel once more, and again in vain, to Ronaldo's parents' cottage where he has been hiding. After confronting some characters (all of them seem sinister in Ronaldo's distorted gaze), the Brazilian manages to solve his problems, as if from a dream.

After finishing his MA in Anthropology, Hugo spends his days giving his brain a rest from the endless reading of texts by unknown authors. His only company is Luisa, the cleaning lady, with whom he plays cat and mouse. To escape the sleep of reason – which creates monsters -, Hugo exercises his lyrical vein by writing, with his friend Manuel, songs about their neighbourhood. The quiet dilettantism of our protagonist is shaken by Catarina, a young and beautiful translator who’s starting her professional life as a freelancer. Hugo is hooked and wavers. High above, a kestrel falcon hovers. It’s not the only bird of prey that can do it.

Lúcia is misbegotten, unloved and the eternal widow of her own father. A cry of rage in bodily form, she is mad, maltreated and humbled. She wears mourning in remembrance of her mothers crime and betrayal, and gives vent to her inconsolable pain to make sure theres no rest or respite for the killers of her father. She lives in hope of her brothers return so she can fulfil her promise of avenging her fathers blood.

This is a documentary about a way of living in Madeira island in Portugal, after the revolution, after April's 25 in 1974. A unique document for the country and especially for the Madeira island remembering those times of hard living.

This short film is based upon a book of tales "Exemplary Crimes" by Max Aub who, in his turn, was inspired by real testimonies that describe crimes straightforwardly. The Testimonies are individual confessions by different persons that have nothing in common but the fact that all committed murder.

Amanda is a melancholic prostitute, in love with a regular client, a disenchanted doctor. Since the day Amanda met this man, he has become, without knowing it, her only client. This explains why Amanda, since then, has been stealing suitcase in a bus station in order to live. One day Amanda steals a suitcase which is different than the other. Its content will change her life.

"O Quadro" is a short film written and directed by Lucas Manarte. The film tells the story of Eduarda and João, a couple in debt.