João Lagarto

Raimund Gregorius, having saved a beautiful Portuguese woman from leaping to her death, stumbles upon a mesmerizing book by a Portuguese author, which compels him to suddenly abandon the boring life he has led for years and to embark on an enthralling adventure. In search of the author, Gregorius acts as detective, pulling together pieces of a puzzle that involves political and emotional intrigue and the highest possible stakes. His voyage is one that transcends time and space, delving into the realms of history, medicine and love, all in search of true meaning to his life.

"Until life separates us" tells the story of Raquel, a 42-year-old woman who engages Henry, an 18-year-old boy who is the son of her husband's boss. The relationship between Raquel and Henrique lasts only three days, but the aftermath of this involvement will be remarkable, especially when Henrique begins to relate with Patricia, Rachel's daughter. The bad nature of Henry will lead the young man to a tragic and irreversible end. And the life of Rachel and her family will never be the same.

Father António is a priest by vocation, committed and generous, dear people of Vila Daires a quiet village of the north. But Father António is also a man, and Vila Daires is not as peaceful as it seems. The good intentions of the Father will not be sufficient to halt the worsening of the conflict. And when your fate intersects with Lena, the "black sheep" of the village, Father will also be forced to confront his own demons. Especially with those who never even thought that could exist.

It is 1654, in the South of France. When horsemen follow a runaway slave into the convent where he's taken sanctuary and kill both the fugitive and the Mother Superior, they little realise that one of the novices is the spirited daughter of retired musketeer D'Artagnan.

Shup up in dead-end lives with dreams larger than life, two inseparable friends in their thirties decide to take their fates in hand. Nevertheless, a woman a « fatale » one, gets them away from their path. And the three of them – two others will quickly join them- find themselves involved in a strange case, that of a fake painting robbery. Who said crime is not worth?

A theatre having national as part of its name, at the top of a square, reflecting a country’s history. But which one? This is a voyage through the various narratives about D. Maria II National Theatre, forged through the intentions of the several regimes that intended to convey their own ideologies within the theatre’s mission. This is also the story of those who fought against it, opposed the institution and became part of it. How can one become heir of these stories, even if never having set foot inside.

The Meldrews go on holiday to Portugal with Mrs Warboys, who is hoping for romance with her penpal Alfonso. Photographer Martin Trout follows them there, believing they have a roll of film that belongs to him.

No description available.

No description available.

A young priest commits a crime when he falls in love with a beautiful and troubled woman. Based on O Crime do Padre Amaro ("The Crime of Father Amaro"), a novel by the 19th-century Portuguese writer José Maria de Eça de Queiroz. It was first published in 1875 to great controversy.

Set during the Estado Novo dictatorship, in the night of April 24, Pedro hears that the political police, PIDE, assaulted his house. Fearing of what his fate may be, Pedro runs, looking for a place to hide.

A priest struggles with his religious beliefs as he sees his countrymen murdered in Nazi occupied Italy and as he becomes attracted to a woman operating in the resistance.

During a time of political upheaval in Brazil, two strangers meet by coincidence in a foreign land and end up caught in the middle of a gem smuggling ring.

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.

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.

The story of Brazil’s first emperor, returning to Europe on board the English ship Warspite. The trip makes Pedro conquer his fears and face his life from a personal point of view. He goes back in time and relives outstanding moments of his earlier life – since his childhood, when in 1808 he arrived coming from Portugal with his family, until he left in the dead of the night, in 1831, running away from Brazil.

After a violent civil war, D. Miguel, the last Portuguese absolutist king, is defeated by the liberals, led by his brother D. Pedro. In 1834 D. Miguel left for exile. His supporters don't give up on returning him to the throne. Willing to do anything they even try to use the slaves of the colonies. A mysterious emissary is sent to Cape Verde to prepare an uprising. But other reasons were behind his visit to the archipelago ....

A blind teacher breaks the rules to help a female student rediscover the pleasures of life.

Are the Portuguese afraid of the changes after the Estado Novo dictatorship?

Story of the 1974 coup that overthrew the right-wing Portuguese dictatorship--which continued the fascist policies of long-time dictator Antonio Salazar--and of two young army captains who were involved in it.

George, an agoraphobic young woman, cannot go more than 522 steps away from her home. One day, a personal tragedy forces her to embark on a journey from Spain to her native Portugal. Along the way, George's whole world begins to widen…

In the quietness of rural life, small disputes about the right to use a rivulet may take the proportion of a life-and-death matter..

Macau 1897. Life is easy for Portuguese settlers. Young reveler Francisco Frontaria is deemed as irresponsible for all his partying and boozing. Shunned and exiled for crossing a line by insulting the daughter of a prominent family, he finds himself penniless and vagrant.

A baby is kidnapped in a Brazilian airport. Years later, the mother lives in Lisbon and works in a strip-tease bar so she can survive. When she is fired, she joins a gang of bank robbers...

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.

Diana was born and raised in the neighborhood of Estrela Polar, lost hers parents when she was a child and leads a band of criminals who negotiates for drugs, money laundering, weapons, paintings, jewellery and tobacco.

Twenty-five years after leaving school, a group of former students decide to organise a reunion. But, contrary to expectations, these "old boys" realise that time has accentuated their differences. The atmosphere is tense, the conversation taut and the old grudges resurface in no time.

Lena disappears mysteriously during the winter of 1976. This is the last stop on a journey that begins in colonial Mozambique on new year's eve at 1957 gives way to 1958. Ningo, a black boy brought up by Lena's parents, and her childhood friend, comes to Lisbon to help find her, at the request of Lena's mother. Using the letters that Lena has left behind as a testament to her life, in wich she has rebelled against the challenged the powers that be, Ningo discovers the identity of her kidnapper - Jorge Matos - a former secret policeman who has followed her from Lourenço Marques, motivated by morbid desire. Lena's kidnapper dies from two inexplicable snake bites to the neck, in accordance with a legend and ritual that had been part of Lena and Ningo's childhood.

In an isolated village of the Alentejo region, a conflict arises. José Vitorino, one of the landowners of the region, rich in prehistoric monuments, wants to build a luxurious solarium in lands filled with ancient rocks, places of devotion and sacred rituals. Indifferent to the people’s protest, who believe in the magical powers of the stones and that the region’s drought is due to the rocks’ destruction, José Vitorino hires an architect to plan his new house. On christmas eve, in the middle of the winter solstice, a strange ceremony around a dolmen, once an altar for bloody sacrifices in more remote times, releases a harmful spell. A race against time to reverse the faulty charm begins.

Maria a young girl living in Portugal in the late 60's, is left alone by her husband who is taken to the colonial war in Africa on their wedding day. In an environment of traditions and taboos she tries to deal with her love and loss at the same time she tries to find her own voice.

At first sight, 10-year-old Benoît Brisefer, seems like any other little boy his age. However, Benoît is endowed with amazing force. All the bandits who cross his path learn this to their own cost. But, unfortunately, no one is perfect... As soon as he catches a cold, Benoît loses his extraordinary physical abilities. Hence he never takes off the woollen scarf wrapped around his neck. Brave and very determined, he doesn't hesitate a second to take action to defend his friends. So, when Poilonez - a well known crook - and his gang decide to focus on Mr. Dussiflard, his taxi driver friend, Benoît does all that he can to thwart his plans.

Summer of 1870. Two writers, Eça de Queiroz and Ramalho Ortigão, decide to write a four-handed whodunit for the daily "Diário de Notícias". Could it be that the story they wrote as fiction is based on a real case? This question fuels the conflict between the two writers and drives them to a nearly fatal duel. Lisbon is in commotion. One crime follows another in a story in which love is stronger than tradition. Everything happens at frenzied pace, as in a game.

Can a turtle, the most pacific animal on earth, start a range of significant events that are going to forever change a couple's life? After dividing all their assets, Arnaldo e Barbara still have one decision to make before they formalize their separation: what to do with the turtle? Amongst hesitation and failed solutions, unintended burglaries, police stations, plastic natures and misunderstandings, a single turtle fate is postponing this couple's separation. Because they know that, when they give the turtle back to its natural habitat, their relationship will be over. Are they ready for that last step?

The story about the last man to be sentenced to death in Portugal.

The hypochondriac Sebastião and his not so normal family must save the country from the prime minister's plan of selling the country to China, Germany, France and Angola, and show that Portugal is not for sale.

The story of Luizinha, a girl born into a very poor family who is given by her father to António, the richest man in town, to raise her. But the death of his wife leads António to marry Berta for the second time, and it soon becomes clear that the large family home is too small to accommodate both Luizinha and her stepmother. At the height of the conflict, António defends his daughter and Berta files for a contentious divorce. Shortly afterwards, she is found dead and António is accused of murder. But the truth that the court seeks to uncover may not be the most obvious one.

After the passing of one of his friends, João remember's the summer he had with his friends when he was 12 years old.

During the war of in-dependency Evita moves from Lisbon to Mozambique to marry Luís. She slowly discovers how different and disturbing life is in a country of war and when her husband is send on a military mission she starts to fight loneliness. Over time she finds out more about her husband and Mozambique than she would have imagined in her peaceful European home. Racism, violence, injustice and fatalism make life unbearable...

The young, sickly girl Bernadette comes from a poverty-stricken family. When the Virgin Mary appears to her in a cavern near Lourdes, no one takes the girl seriously, even when she digs up a wellspring at the Virgin's instructions The local authorities even try to hush up the entire incident. In vain, however, because when Empress Eugénie requests water from the spring for her sickly son, they are forced to acquiesce. And even the local priest is finally convinced. While taking his tuberculosis-stricken fiancé Claire to a sanatorium, the young doctor Henri Guillaumet meets Bernadette. The water from Lourdes' spring heals Claire's disease overnight, but the scientist in Henri doubts the miracle and wants to expose Bernadette as a liar. It is not until Henri again meets Bernadette, who has in the meantime become a nun and works as a nurse, that he finds a way to balance belief and modern science. And his love for Claire is strengthened as well.

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…

Set four years after the Portuguese revolution and the simultaneous loss of the Portuguese empire in Africa, the story concerns a director who sells guns to finance his play.

A courtroom. A divorce. A drama told in flashback. In a courtroom story, the viewer will witness the divorce of Clemente and Emília, in which the division of property and custody of a child are discussed. But something strange slowly begins to emerge in the testimonies: from the clash between the two versions of the same couple's experience, the truth will come to light.

A writer becomes the main character in the story he intended to write

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.

This Portuguese movie directed by João Botelho, is part of The Four Elements series. This is the second episode, The Air.

Dreaming of great adventures and of standing up for his homeland, a young Portuguese man enlists in the army during World War I and is sent to the front line in Mozambique, Africa. Left behind by his platoon, he sets out on a grueling trek across the mystic Makua native land, walking for over a thousand kilometers, in search of his dream.

David envisions an unusual project, he tries to recreate the love between two women that can only meet through the Polaroid pictures he takes of them.

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.

This movie bring us a story about a woman named Laura (Marisa Cruz) that lives in a small portuguese town during the 50's. Tired of living in such a small town she travells to a bigger town, in which she'll have the opportunity to feel free.

A Portuguese imigrant in Holland dies in an accident and is buried in Amsterdam. But his soul will not rest in peace until his body is carried back to Portugal.

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.

Ordo Tupikos, a french sailor with greek origins, discover that his first wife, Estelle, with whom he had remained married a few months only 16 years earlier, is now a famous movie star called Louise Sandoli. But, more than her name, everything about Louise seems to have changed. Ordo decides to meet Estelle again, after all these years, to know what it's all about...

The film presents us with a reflection on the Spanish Civil War in the Portuguese society, At a time when Salazar ruled.

Rui Sequeira, a former fighter in the Colonial War, resident of a small village of Alentejo, celebrates another anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in the company of his wife and her daughter, the young Sara, with which he has a not so good relationship. On the night of the celebrations, the death of a friend forever alters his live, waking up a whole past long dormant.

Egas Moniz, a man marked by perseverance and ambition. Audacious and in dissonance with a country full of “narrow-minded” people, Egas Moniz faced everyone so as to impose his scientific ideas, for which he was awarded, at a quite advanced stage of his life, the much-desired Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1949.

The film is liberally inspired by the period when Eça de Queiroz was Portuguese Consul in Cuba, when still a Spanish colony. Eça de Queiroz struggles against local authorities in his defense of Chinese workers, brought to the sugar plantations by greedy middlemen and exploited as slaves. Two parallel stories unfold, that of a Chinese girl which Eça de Queiroz saves from the clutches of one of the island’s most powerful slave owners, and the other of a romance involving a young American woman on holidays in Havana.

Algarve, late 90s. Following the death of her grandmother, Milene - a strong young woman full of life despite a slight mental handicap - divides her life between her family of notables and a Cape Verdean family that keeps her going, whom she met when her grandmother died. The wind that whistles in the cranes plunges us into the world of two families against the backdrop of Portugal's recent past.

João, a young man which uses to have much success with women but doesn't treat them as he should. They are like a toy to him, till the day he meets Ana. That girl will change his life and the way he sees the relationships between men and women, but not before a "little problem" called Sofia - a TV star in the movie - come into their relationship

Based on the eponymous novel by Boris Vian. With the help of a time machine, a man explores his past, apparently with the aim of curing his present misfortune...

S.Ó.S.”, by Bruno Soares, “Céu Aberto ou Espaço Limitado”, by José António Loureiro, and “Para Cá do Marão”, by José Mazeda, are three short films, all first works by their directors , shown as if they were a single film. What they have in common is the fact that they deal with crimes. Bruno Soares' film, with Marco Costa, Joel Branco and Carmen Santos, deals with a robbery in Lisbon, with the owner of the house confusing the robber with his son. The one by José António Loureiro, with Joaquim Nicolau, is about a man who leaves prison and has difficulty adapting. Finally, José Mazeda's, with João Lagarto, focuses on a dispute in Trás-os-Montes between a local and a Galician.

Bruno Aleixo was invited to write a biopic about his own life. Lacking ideas, he decided to ask his closest friends for inspiration. Reunited in a cafe, each of his friends suggests a different idea, more or less biographical.

Dois Dragões follows a small dog on an adventure in a Chinese restaurant, where its owner (Ana Zanatti) goes to have dinner with her daughter (Beatriz Batarda). Terrorised by the possibility of being turned into Chop Suey, the dog passes a frightening night, running through the restaurant and hearing the telenovela-like conversations taking place at the different tables. With the camera placed in the dog’s perspective, this short film acts as an amusing panorama of Lisbon society at the end of the 20th century.

The year is 1820, and trade between Cuba and Catalonia is a booming business, although the goods that arrive to Cuba are not always the products that were shipped, in some cases, they simply arrive "lumps" or "coal". As it appears in the logbooks of the ships. 'Havanera 1820' is a film that tells stories of love and adventure in a time when Cuba confronts the Spanish colonizers.

Jeanne, her second husband, Michel, and her teen daughter Marie live quietly in the South of France. However, Jeanne's secret past comes back to haunt her.

Inspired on the true events of the Portuguese king Don Pedro (14th Century) which unburied his mistress to make her queen after dead. This film tells the story of Pedro, a man admitted to a psychiatric hospital for traveling by car with the corpse of his beloved, recalling simultaneously three different lives: one from the past, another from nowadays and another one from an distopic future.

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

A message of praise to the President concludes a Party assembly, sparking apotheotic applause. In the middle of the crowd inquisitive eyes of the State Police look for the slightest sign of dissent, and the ovation does not cease.

The difficult reunion between a tough young mother and her neglected daughter provide impetus this gritty, but upbeat French drama. Daisy, a typical young woman of the X-generation, seems to have no ambition in her life; she lives for the moment and the moment is often self-destructive. Abused as a child, she affects toughness and bravado to disguise her inner fears. Mona, Daisy's seven-year old daughter, is the result of the sexual abuse Daisy suffered while she was a child. Mona was raised by her father, but after he went to prison and his girlfriend rejected her, Mona must return to her mother. The reunion is not joyful and the two must lower plenty of mutual barriers if they are to bond. When Mona's lover Sami is arrested for a shooting, Daisy and Mona go on the lam. To survive they become con-artists and petty thieves. Just as things start to improve, finds out that her new boss has been having her deliver kiddie-porn.

Diana is a young woman about to enter adulthood. She lives with her father, Gabriel, a game machine dealer, and Magdalene, the stepmother, alongside those working in a hair salon in a shopping center. One day, Diana discovers that Magdalene not only keeps a secret relationship with Michael, the security center and instructor in the gym of the neighborhood, as resumed his old habit of playing. Not to allow the stepmother to his father do the same as her mother had done to her, Diana decides to intervene, approaching the Magdalene lover.

A crime drama based on the life of a woman who lived for years with a man that was the head of a corruption network in the Portuguese football world.

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.

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.

Entangled in crime since childhood, Zeca Mouro experienced probation, reform school, and jail through expediency and marginality. His life is thus defined by crime and atonement.

A theft of water, a homicide, a question of honour, a tragedy in the village of Gralhas, Montalegre.

To celebrate the end of another college year, three friends decide to have an adventurous night of summer. But things don't go according to plan.

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The elder matriarch of a dysfunctional family is mistankenly declared dead.

In the near future, along the Portuguese coast, a network of ocean and solar power transformers will be installed. With the ecological balance seriously threatened, domestic animals disappear from the cities and return to wildlife in upland areas. On hearing of his sister's death in a road disaster, Jorge tries to warn his father - who, meanwhile, leaves for a secretly kept house, as a refuge and resting place.

A boy lives with his mother and younger sister. One day, his mother disappears with her lover, leaving the two children alone. António, the older brother, takes care of his sister, Maria da Luz. The little girl is about 10 months old. When she starts walking, their mother reappears with her lover, takes the girl, and leaves the boy behind. António is devastated, as he had been living for several months with a single goal: to protect his sister.

Four people meet during a train trip up the Douro Valley.