Uma Pedra no Sapato

Cláudia Ribeiro spent seven months – since the time of plantation till the crops – capturing the work in the fields of the sisters Ana e Glória, in Passinhos de Cima, between the rivers Douro and Tâmega. It is an isolated place, where the baker, the fish seller, the grocer and their sons visit once a week. This a film on a way of life, the subsistence agriculture, but also about the humour and the ironies of representation and hospitality.

'Bué Sabi' (pronounced "bweh sabi") portrays the unlikely friendship of three female characters: a troubled girl of Gypsy descent who lives in one of Lisbon's toughest neighbourhoods, her best friend from Cape Verde and a young middle-class girl. Apart from their differences, they are good friends. Until one fateful night in Lisbon...

Her name is El - a name that sounds like a letter and makes the young androgynous woman a kind of representative of her generation. A generation that is overwhelmed by all the possibilities of the world, globalization and the digital stream. Lisbon is a promise of freedom, independence and an intense life. But the question of meaning brings doubt into everyday life: what if I were happier with someone else or called another place home? When home no longer feels like home, the search becomes routine. When El meets Kay after a break-up, in the midst of her search, their story together begins. Time, space and emotions implode in "Baan", blurring Lisbon with Bangkok, past with present.

By the director: "Ar.Co embodies each person’s geography, it escapes normalisation. Each individual’s experience is his own. This film is my experience, our experience. Pieced together from the school’s archive, from recordings of classes by Manuel Castro Caldas and from conversations at home."

Three men wash ashore in a forgotten cove, where time seems to have stood still. Surrounded by volcanic rocks and tides, they find themselves confined in a place as beautiful as it is inhospitable. As the days go by, a strange presence begins to insinuate itself among them.

On a sunny afternoon in Lisbon, Manel leaves home to look for work. He comes across an old church and remembers his late friend Pedro. The history of this space intertwines with Manel's emotional journey.

1975, the year after the Carnation Revolution. Eduarda, João and Mick come from Northern Europe to work in the co-ops in the occupied farms of central Portugal. Like many others, they come to help with the land and the livestock, give medical appointments, family planning classes, show sexual education films and participate in the traditional dances. They bring a great deal of questions, but the “comrades from the South”, in turn, have more questions than answers.

School is over and there's a hustle in the air. In Porto, tourists fill up the streets and cafés. The old and decadent are now the highlights of the city’s gentrification. Vicente moves around town on his bike and watches the urban changes happening day to day. The town is no longer the same, the world is changing and so is he. Among his family and friends, Vicente lives with anticipation the first days of summer and the beginning of a new life.

“Black Gold” is a visually striking film directed by a Japanese filmmaker, blending a minimalist aesthetic with the natural beauty of rural India – a true visual feast for cinephiles. Every detail is crafted with precision, reflecting a uniquely Japanese perspective.

October 2019, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk (UK). Three months before Brexit. Hundreds of Portuguese migrant workers pour into town, seeking work at the local turkey factories. Tânia (The Mother of the Portuguese), a former worker in these poultry plants, is now married to an English hotel owner. She is the perfect facilitator for the Portuguese workers, but dreams of becoming a British citizen and leaving this dirty business behind by transforming her husband’s derelict hotels into refurbished senior citizens homes.

Sam is a lonely luthier with the extraordinary ability to hear the constant noise of other people’s minds. Emotionally isolated and trapped by the burden of that gift, his life changes when he meets Alicia, a former dancer rebuilding her life after illness and the only person capable of truly connecting with him.

A young couple takes care of a holiday condo in the desolate environment of an empty village. When the weather changes and the unexpected happens, they begin to drift further apart.

In 1917 Burma (now Myanmar), a British diplomat is set to marry his fiancée, but after a sudden panic, escapes to Singapore, sending her on what evolves into a chase across Asia.

Mena lives alone with her daughter Clara. Today is Clara’s seventh birthday. Despite her limited financial resources, Mena still manages to organise a birthday party. But after a phone call from her mother, she becomes distraught and anxious.

Ashore portrays the life of a singular fisherman in an ancient riverfront community near Lisbon. Divided between the quiet solitude of the river and the family ties that wash him ashore, the film follows Albertino Lobo, as nature renews itself with each season cycle.

In the early '90s, Portuguese nanny Leonor accompanies 8-year-old Vera to France, where Vera spends her vacation with her estranged French father and his new family. The deep bond between Leonor and Vera, along with the language barrier isolating them, creates a complex dynamic. As tensions mount, Leonor faces reminders of her subordinate position within the household.

Minas de São Domingos is a small village built on a mine in the Alentejo region of Portugal. Today, the mine, which in other times kept its neighbours in employment, is no longer operating. It is difficult to imagine a future for this slightly forgotten land, criss-crossed by ruins that bear witness to a happier era, and virtually abandoned by inhabitants forced to leave to find work elsewhere. It’s summer, children play in the street, tourists camp next to the river, adults burst into traditional song in the ruins of the mine. Here, everything happens as a community, as if being together was the only possible answer to the question formulated by the film’s title.

Sergio travels to a metropolis in West Africa to work for an NGO as an environmental engineer on a road project between the desert and the forest. There, he becomes entangled in an intimate yet unbalanced relationship with two inhabitants of the city, Diara and Gui. As neo-colonial dynamics among the expatriate community unravel, this fragile bond becomes his only refuge from an impending collapse into solitude or barbarism.