José Mazeda

Floating House

It tells the story of Araci, a woman who saw her daughter murdered by ranchers. She emigrates to Mértola with her husband and their granddaughter, who will grow up without forgetting the indigenous rituals and teachings of Brazil.

So My Grandma's a Lesbian!

Eva, a young and promising Spanish lawyer based in Edinburgh, sees her wedding plans with the heir to an important and ultra-conservative Scottish family in jeopardy when she learns that her grandmother, Sofía, has decided to marry…

Before the Mountains

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

The Island of Lies

Galicia, northern Spain, January 2, 1921. The steamship Santa Isabel, sailing towards Argentina with more than two hundred emigrants on board, sinks off the coast of Sálvora Island. Three island women, María, Josefa and Cipriana, who have bravely set sail aboard a fragile skiff to save the shipwrecked, are treated as heroes by the cynical authorities; but León, an inquisitive and tenacious Argentinean journalist, starts asking uncomfortable questions.

O Cônsul de Bordéus

This is the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a man of conviction who saved 30,000 lives during WWII, in June 1940. Among them were10,000 Jews. As the Portuguese General Consul stationed in Bordeaux, France, he issued 30,000 visas for safe passage to Portugal. He defied the direct orders of his government and exhibited courage, moral rectitude, unselfishness, and self-sacrifice by issuing visas to all refugees regardless of nationality, race, religion or political opinions.This narrative film expresses his heroic actions towards humanity, which will perpetuate his legacy of justice for a new generation. In 1966, Yad Vashem named him Righteous Among the Nations. He is considered to have achieved the largest single rescue operation of World War II.

Adriana

In a remote island where mourning was settled, a man decreed that there will never be sex or children anymore... The island gets desolate and he decided to send his daughter, Adriana, to the mainland to form a family by natural methods.

O Rapaz do Trapézio Voador

One bad thing never comes alone, says the people. The village Estrela is threatened by the waters of the new Alqueva dam. It will become an "island". But, as one bad thing never comes alone, the daily lives of the inhabitants of this small mountain village are changed by the death of Adriano. "In order to create, I destroyed myself; I have so much externalized within myself that within me I exist only outwardly. I am the living scene where various actors perform various plays." (from Livro do Desassossego by Fernando Pessoa), as Adriano liked to quote Adriano. He committed suicide on the day of the village feast, hanging himself in the main square. For Adriano, the main square of the village has long been the center of the world. Adriano felt surrounded, depressed, unable to escape his destiny. "No one can stop a man who travels with suicide on his lapel" Adriano repeated to Lisete, always to the point of exhaustion.

The Stone Raft

An inexplicable crack in the Pyrenees Mountains provokes excitement and scientific curiosity. As the geological fracture deepens and widens, the European community begins to disassociate itself from the calamity, and panic ensues among tourists and residents attempting to escape. When Spain and Portugal physically separate from the continent, the detached Iberian peninsula aimlessly floats off to sea, becoming home to a group of god-like humans.

Carol's Journey

Spain, 1938, during the Spanish Civil War. Carol, a 12-year-old Spanish-American girl, arrives in her mother's hometown and transforms the secretive family environment. Her innocence and rebellious nature drive her at first to reject a world that is at once foreign and completely new.

Antonio, a boy in Lisbon

A boy in Lisbon, in this Lisbon in permanent renovation.

The Ninth Gate

A rare book dealer finds himself at the heart of a string of paranormal events when he is hired to find the last two copies of a text, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, capable of summoning the Devil.

Atilano, presidente

Atilano Bermejo is a petty crook who gets involved in the scam of his life: to be Prime Minister. His charisma and lack of social concern make him an ideal political candidate for a group of bankers looking for a good public image behind which to hide and disguise their ambitions.

The Hips of J.W.

Two actors performing in Strindberg's "Inferno" as God and Lucifer, find themselves competing in real life as well. One of them, Henrique, has spiritual obsession with John Wayne and his way of walking. He and de Dieu, his fellow actor who plays Lucifer and also directs the Strindberg play, engage in a philosophical and spiritual tug-of-war, especially when they meet an author named God, who has plans for another drama to feature both actors.

Secrets of the Heart

Javi and his friend Carlos visit an old house on the outskirts of a small Spanish village. According to his brother Juan this is a haunted house and one can hear the voices of the dead. Later he is intrigued with a room which is always closed (the room where his father was found dead). He is so interested in these mysteries that he starts to investigate all the secrets of these dead people and their stories.

Pereira Declares

Lisbon, 1938. Mr. Pereira is the editor of the culture section of an evening paper. Although fascism is on the rise in Europe, like in nearby civil war Spain or even inside Portugal itself in the form of Salazar's regime, Pereira only concerns himself with writing bios and translating French novels. Things change after he hires a young writer as his assistant, getting to know also his girlfriend – both opponents to the regime – and reluctantly helps them when they begin to get in trouble for subversive activities. Eventually, he's forced to take a stand...

Rosa de Areia

Marking a stylistically and philosophically turn away from the earlier features, The Sand Rose is Reis and Cordeiro’s most abstract, conceptual and literary work. The film’s collage structure gathers texts from multiple sources – including Kafka and Montaigne – and crafts a world of theatrical artifice far from the documentary inspired naturalism of Ana and Trás-os-Montes. Reis and Cordeiro’s least known film has lingered in obscurity and never recovered from the unfairly negative reviews that resulted in its severely limited release. Reis died less than two years later, just as he and Cordeiro were about to begin an ambitious adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Parámo. - Harvard Film Archive

Circle of Passions

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.

Island of Loves

This film depicts the life of the 19th-century Portuguese writer Wenceslau De Moraes by means of nine ancient ballads from China. The writer married a Chinese woman after he left his wife and family to go live in Macao. Later, he moved to Japan where he fell in love with a Japanese woman, staying in Japan for the rest of his life. Mixed in with the career and loves of Moraes is the history of Portugal at home and in its colonies.

Oxalá

A man exiled in Paris makes various trips to Portugal after the Carnation Revolution. Each trip is represented by a woman.

A Princesa das Ilhas Negras

Adaptation of a Portuguese traditional tale. A travelling man rests at a inn. While sleeping, three beautiful women tell him where to go, the black islands, where he can find them and marry the one that is a princess.