Solveig Nordlund
A documentary overview on the life and work of the writer Mia Couto.
Biographical documentary Solveig Nordlund says that 50 years of life in Portugal. The evolution of Portugal from fascism to the current crisis. A retrospective of his life in Portugal through their films or films in which collaborated. A personal look at the transformation of a country that is not his but who adopted her.
A film about the sculptor José Pedro Croft, while it is a journey to the origins of creativity. José Pedro Croft is a sculptor who constantly crosses borders, from drawing to installation, from painting to sculpture, in a constant and surprising game. It mixes color and form, the banal with the solemn, and transforms space by introducing unusual materials. The theme of the film is this constant passage from one form of expression to another, this constant game, introducing one more element: the look of the filmmaker.
Inspired in the book with the same title by António Lobo Antunes.
The story of Carla and Marta, the daughter who is seriously ill. In Barcelona, Carla discovers a special mirror, which is an open door to the past: it keeps the reflection for several years instead of returning it immediately. Carla offers her daughter the mirror and it will change their lives forever.
"I write to have a mountain of books when I die." Psychiatrist António Lobo Antunes is one of the most internationally recognized Portuguese writers. His novels, usually settled in Lisbon, are published in prestigious publishers in several countries (Christian Bourgois, Random House, Luchterhand). In Nordlund's film, the characters and scenes from his books constantly interrupt the writer's speech. Lisbon invades his home. The voices of the characters impose themselves to the writer's house. António Lobo Antunes compares his writing to a watercourse that leaves to freely find its way.
Nuno, a boy of nine, runs away from home on the night of the 24th of April 1974. He hides in a mysterious building that is being abandoned in great haste. People are running down the stairs, cars are leaving, finally Nuno and a dog are the only ones left. They become friends and fall asleep together. In the morning they wake up with screams from the street. Nuno thinks that it is his mother calling for him and runs to the window. The street its full of people, tanks and soldiers. It’s the 25th of April. And Nuno believes that it was his mother who made the revolution just to find him.
Ricardo Monteiro is a successful television producer specialising in reality shows. He is 45 years old and he has just received an award for the most popular television show of the year, when he receives an ultimatum from his 18-year-old daughter Leonor. If he does not come home that same evening to celebrate her birthday he will never see her again. Ricardo is distracted by business or other commitments and he is too late for the last flight home. When he returns next day the apartment is empty and Leonor is gone. At first Ricardo thinks that it is only a game, but there are no phone calls or messages and after a while he gets worried and starts looking for her. He discovers that she has quit school without telling him and that she has lost all contact with her old friends. She has become a complete stranger.
Based on a the short story "Low Flying Aircraft" by J.G. Ballard and set in a near future where humans are dying breed. Judite and André flee to a semi-abandoned apartment complex to protect their mutant child from certain death.
Based on the book by Henning Mankell (Sweden), this story takes place in Mozambique and is about a young boy, Nelio, who loses his entire family during a time of civil war. A wounded Nelio is found by a baker in the capital Mapouto; refusing medical treatment, the boy instead asks for sanctuary so he can tell his terrible tale. This he proceeds to do, starting with how the fighters arrived in his village and slaughtered many, to his captivity, his escape and his teaming with other orphaned street urchins to become their leader in survival.
Mai Zetterling is interviewed in the summer of 1984 in her house in southern France. Seventeen years have passed since the Girls were made in Sweden and were adversely affected by the criticism. Zetterling discusses why she left Sweden and resides at crucial times in her life; The drama period, to be celebrated actress and then to move to pave his way in the male-dominated director's profession. A guiding star in Zetterling's life has been to constantly expand its boundaries.
Mário, eight years old, a kid who begs in the tourist paradise of Madeira island. One day in his life, from morning to evening.
A director is having trouble looking at the pictures in the movie she has made of breed dogs and dog owners since she is a fierce race breeding opponent.
The famous tragedy of Charlemagne and his nephew the Duque of Mantua, in conflict about a murder. The play, six hours long in its complete version, is performed each year in several villages of Saint Thomas Island, an ancient Portuguese colony. The characters, interpreted only by men wearing masks and sumptuous clothes in European style, are transmitted from father to son, and declaim an unalterable text. Several interviews with them lead us to understand the almost sacred function they are representing.
Ambulatory history, freely inspired by Georg Büchner's biography (1813-37) and the reasons that led him first to political intervention and then to strict isolation. With students of unidentified present time (1968? 1970?), the themes developed, in Büchner, are triggered by the publication of "The Messenger of Hesse", a pamphlet addressed to the peasants, urging them to revolt. Their misunderstanding, as well as the repression of the young revolutionaries, leads Büchner to a particularly skeptical and painful attitude...
Dina (Maria Santiago) is a teenager brought up by her grandmother, employed as a housekeeper for a fairly well-off family. Since Dina only has her grandmother, she spends her time fantasizing about her life and reading comic-book love stories -- activities that do nothing to improve her dim perspective of reality. Due to these handicaps and her own inexperience, she gets involved with Django (Luis Lucas), a shady character who decides to use her as bait to attract men and then rob them. One day when both are in a taxi with robbery in mind, the driver gets suspicious so Django shoots him, and so does Dina. She escapes and runs away -- though it seems like she has learned too little too late. This story unfolds against a time of upheaval in Portugal (mid-1970s) when the military government is formulating a constitution and social changes are happening everywhere.
The movie begins with the Jönsson gang making a minor burglary. It goes wrong and the gang leader, Sickan, gets caught. After he has spent 10 months in jail, Vanheden and Rocky come to welcome him when he's released. But he doesn't take notice of them, and he's picked up by the mysterious banker Wall-Enberg Jr. instead. He wants Sickan to perform a burglary in Switzerland, in order to retrieve the famous Bedford Diamonds. Sickan does this but is fooled by Wall-Enberg and nearly gets caught. When he returns to Sweden and re-unites with his old gang members, he's set on revenge, both physically and psychologically...
A woman arrives home, apparently coming from her job, and sets out about house chores and placing every object around her with extreme care. The only company she has is the radio, tuned to a station of popular music hits that the audience can ask for by telephone. There is a single hint that she may have breast cancer. Then, she sets the table for a large dinner - for one - including a champagne bottle. She commits suicide by pills overdose, before she utters a word.
The film of a performance of a selection of cabaret comedy sketches by Karl Valentin, with Jorge Silva Melo as stage director. The show was a complete success and has become almost legendary. Solveig Nordlund shot it, adding some more sketches that weren’t included on the show.
A story about doomed love between two people from different worlds and the impact in their lives. Based on the novel of the same name by Portuguese writer Camilo Castelo Branco.
A woman translates the front page of H.P. Lovecraft's book “The Silver Key”. Her husband, a journalist, listens. The book describes the conflicts between the real and the imaginary, and tells how Randolph Carter, the film's character, leaves everyday life in search of his childhood dreams.
The agriculture reforming process, after the 1974 revolution, is seen through an analysis of the social structures and class struggles of the Portuguese society.
A portrait of the everyday life of a typical middle-class family in parallel with the fall of the "Estado Novo", the 48-year dictatorship led by Salazar. The daughters' conflicts and frustrations with their parents, their grandmother and their maid find an obvious echo in the country's collective events. The Carnation Revolution is about to explode.
The tribulations of two friends who, in despair, start begging from door-to-door, and are given a bundle including, literally, a pair of deadman's shoes
Marguerite Duras.is interviewed twice, first in 1984 and then in 1993, on her life and work as a writer and filmmaker.
