Short film by Fernando Lopes, decisive figure of the Portuguese New Wave.

Short film by Fernando Lopes, decisive figure of the Portuguese New Wave.

In his childhood haunts, in the village of Várzea dos Amarelos, the filmmaker films peasant life with its seasonal and daily rituals: a festive meal, the slaughter of a pig, bread-making. The film slides into imagination and blends with fiction: memories and dreams, imagination and reality intermingle in this work full of enthusiasm that has an enormous freedom of form and a zest for life and discovery of the world. With a strong documentary element, it mixes professional actors with the inhabitants of a small village, telling the story of a small film crew in a village living day to day.

Part of the medium-length films for TV Lisboa Sociedade Anónima, O Banqueiro Anarquista is a fine example of what a fabulous script (by Pessoa), exuberant set design, attentive camera work, and an actor (Santos Manuel) at his most daring and accomplished can achieve. The result is a cynically entertaining film, markedly representative of the First Republic, where for almost an hour the viewer is delighted (and unsettled, of course) by the fallacies of a script to which Santos Manuel gives the weight of a body and a voice, that is, he brings it to life. The Anarchist Banker is a brilliant satire on political discourse, of unfailing intelligence and ferocity.

Alentejo 1975. The Police associate a group of traveling players with a strike of agricultural workers. The action takes place in the open space and harsh heat of the Alentejo. With the connivance of Lianor, the troupe enters the palace of Don Gonzalo an old aristocrat. The gentleman is obsessed by visions of great past deeds in a universe of ghosts. This was the first example of militant cinema in Portugal after the end of the Estado Novo dictatorship, exploring the world after the Carnation Revolution and its contradictions.

Alentejo 1975. The Police associate a group of traveling players with a strike of agricultural workers. The action takes place in the open space and harsh heat of the Alentejo. With the connivance of Lianor, the troupe enters the palace of Don Gonzalo an old aristocrat. The gentleman is obsessed by visions of great past deeds in a universe of ghosts. This was the first example of militant cinema in Portugal after the end of the Estado Novo dictatorship, exploring the world after the Carnation Revolution and its contradictions.

In his childhood haunts, in the village of Várzea dos Amarelos, the filmmaker films peasant life with its seasonal and daily rituals: a festive meal, the slaughter of a pig, bread-making. The film slides into imagination and blends with fiction: memories and dreams, imagination and reality intermingle in this work full of enthusiasm that has an enormous freedom of form and a zest for life and discovery of the world. With a strong documentary element, it mixes professional actors with the inhabitants of a small village, telling the story of a small film crew in a village living day to day.

This exaggerated mockery of crime cinema tells the story of a gang lead by "Renato, o pacíficio" (Renato, the peaceful) and their attempt to steal precious jewels from the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. The weapon of choice? Bees!

This exaggerated mockery of crime cinema tells the story of a gang lead by "Renato, o pacíficio" (Renato, the peaceful) and their attempt to steal precious jewels from the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. The weapon of choice? Bees!

The first feature in António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro’s trilogy is a journey through this almost mythical region of north-east Portugal, a tapestry of micronarratives where past, present and future become intertwined.