Abel Ribeiro Chaves

Landmarkers

After the raging fire, landmarks are rediscovered, artificial frontiers carved into the earth. They are stones founded in history by almost extinct ways of doing, where word is law. As nature renews itself, Helena reestablishes the limits of her property and preserves a legacy in which the material is mixed with the human, returning to the roots of an intangible fortune.

War

The recollections of a Portuguese teacher in the present will make us follow his father, Manuel, former fighter in our colonial war and constantly tormented with those memories. He'll walk us through the depths of the physical sites that haunt him - from training barracks to the lakes and gardens of his youth and infatuation - and also to his memory's gulf - war and passion combined, entangled, in a battle that questions or howls immemorial existential doubts.

Vitalina Varela

A Cape Verdean woman navigates her way through Lisbon, following the scanty physical traces her deceased husband left behind and discovering his secret, illicit life.

Earth

Somewhere in the Alentejo there are two great ovens covered in dirt where a man makes charcoal. Essential elements like fire, water, air, earth and space reflect, breath and celebrate the rhythm of the Earth.

Damned Summer

Idling afternoons, drugs, heartbreaks, psychedelic moods immersed in music. An adrenaline rush. Lisbon as the backdrop for a drifting youth.

Barbs, Wastelands

After the Carnation Revolution the peasants in the Alentejo region occupied the huge proprieties where they were once submitted to the power of their masters. The protagonists of this film, resistants of this struggle, tell their story to the youngsters of today, in their own words.

Longe

Through the most secret, arid and wild routes, a man approaches a big city. He looks at it from the top of a hill and feels like a stranger, having left years ago. He seems to recognize the surrounding landscape but, at the same time, feels unable to remember this environment that attracts and repels him. Conflicted, he searches for familiar friends, acquaintances, places and a daughter, who reached out to him so long ago. Finally discovering a haven where he feels at home, he leaves again.

Tavern Man

A typical day in the life of a lonely man who works in an unsuccessful tavern located in the historical center of Guimarães, an old town in Portugal. During the day, the man spends his time coming up with new menu items for his tavern, while at night he gets ready to meet someone special.

Change Nothing

One of the most important figures in contemporary cinema, Pedro Costa's celebrated music documentary is a mesmerizing portrait of French actress-turned-singer Jeanne Balibar, a transfixing, cigarette-smoking chanteuse with an intense devotion to her craft. Photographed in shimmering black-and-white and featuring a soundtrack of jazz-inflected pop songs, the film is a luminous exploration of the creative process.

As Operações Saal

Created on the initiative of the architect Nuno Portas as Secretary of State for Housing and Urban Development of the First Provisional Government, the Local Ambulatory Support Service (SAAL) was a housing assistance program promoted by Resident Associations. The Portuguese Architecture of 25th of April is SAAL - an unparalleled movement in the history of architecture thinking, which served as an example and discussion for many other projects at an international level.