Valdemar Santos
Like every summer, little Salomé returns to her family village nestled in the Portuguese mountains for the holidays. As the vacations begin in a carefree atmosphere, her beloved grandmother suddenly dies. While the adults are tearing each other apart over the funeral, Salomé is haunted by the spirit of the one who was considered a witch.
In a rural landscape, that resembles an old Portugal, an elderly man find out that his wife, whom he believed to be dead, was seen shopping in town. Spiteful and sad, he wants to hide from everyone, but his friends insist that he uses this situation to become stronger and try to get married again.
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.
In 2016, Edgar Pêra released The Amazing Spectator, a playful investigation into cinema’s disquieting essence that had everything from negative film images of boobs and positively splendid interviews to a donkey hand puppet. The film and an accompanying book formed his PhD thesis. But as so often with him, projects turn into obsessions – especially when there are masses of notions not pondered, thoughts not elaborated upon. And so KINORAMA - Beyond the Walls of Cinema was born, a stand-alone continuation of The Amazing Spectator that looks at cinema’s future in cyberspace and, accordingly, perhaps the end of its enslavement to figurative representation, the 'stupid sacred in narrative cinema' (to use a Pêra’ism), realism and artificiality in 3D cinema, and many other aspects.
Dr. Ivan has found two radical cures for unhappiness: the diagnosis of fake terminal cancers and the temporary elimination of some of the 5 senses. But will the therapies result or will they have unforeseeable side effects?
During a night of humiliation, Raymond lives an inner revolt and a kaleidoscopic journey in a country that is about to collapse.
Double revenge in two separate stories. Set in both a near future and the historical past, revenge is served not by violence, but by love.
Ubi Sunt. Porto. Cartography of an imaginary place attracted by the margins (social and geographical) Hybrid and eclectic project, it is the outcome of a audiovisual research residency of humam and urban exploration of an expanding city. Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?, meaning "Where are those who were before us?". Reflective essay on mortality and life's transience, it emerges from that dialectic, of a and episodic and fragmented structure with a choreographed cinematography; where the memory intersects the contemporary.
I am the double of the shadow of my own image. An allegory that occupies my place. This is my act of contrition. Beyond good and evil, I stand as an equation: Its result cannot be manipulated By morals or ethics. In mathematics there is no place for beliefs Just as life and death Are a certain fate.
Constantino works as a keeper of flocks during the day and as a keeper of a museum during the night. He works continuously since he has nowhere to live. Aurora passes by him every morning and end of the day. One day she is brave enough to talk to him.
Inspired by popular cult, O COVEIRO is part light part darkness, a bedtime story and almost a nightmare. A child is born and his parents die of fright just to see him. André Gil Mata revisits the traditional Portuguese tale, in a fantastic movie where heads bounce, but you hear a song.
Life through a glass, life through a lens, life through a camera. Fade to black. General view of the access to a factory with a big wheel.
This is the story of a man who after living over ten years isolated away from his country, returns to avenge His brother's death. Inspired by the writings of David Henry Thoreau, he is translating 'Civil Disobedience' into Portuguese. The action is set between 1908 and 1910, between the assassination of the Portuguese King and Prince and the creation of the Portuguese Republic, an era where anarchists who fight against the monarchy often cross the path of burglars. On a country where corruption is set, the state representatives try to rob, arrest and kill innocents. The main character faces the tyranny of the state and tries to save the rest of his family. But this is a country where nothing changes.
The story of a vigilante friar, zealous caretaker of goodness and order who, after suffering unrequited love for an engaged woman, becomes a terrifying villain in a quiet town.
Four voices and their visions of Guimarães, cradle city of the Portuguese nation and European Capital of Culture in 2012.
Many years after having been locked in the basement by his father, Samuel believes he is still grounded.
Crime Blue Abyss Physical Remorse is inspired by the life and works of Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso. This controversial 20th century painter defied the world avant-garde of his time: “I don’t follow schools. I am an impressionist, cubist, futurist, abstractionist. A melting pot. The real tradition is not to try and relive the past – which is impossible to achieve – but rather something that sets up a follow-through, as happens with parents and children. A child and his father are never alike.” The film follows Amadeo’s motto. It crosses pictorial fiction – suggested by the emblematic picture “The Procession”, painted in Paris in 1913 – with Portuguese contemporary reality.
