Jean Vigo International

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...

Pierre and his wife Anne had a good thing going together, until their son Nicolas was born. Anne traveled with him on all his long truck journeys, and they had frequent and passionate sex. For quite a few years now, Anne has stayed at home to take care of their boy, who is a sickly, weedy little fellow. Pierre is frustrated. Anne is frustrated too but has her almost incestuous feeling for her son to torment her. Even little Nicolas is frustrated, in part due to the knowledge that his father feels that the sacrifice he and his mother made in raising him hasn't been worth the effort. He too has some release in the form of a good relationship with his gigantic dog. When the seething passions of these four discontented mammals reach a crisis point, the result (in this film) is exceedingly ironic.

A Jewish boy living in Amsterdam at the onset of World War II is taken to a concentration camp with his parents. Based on the memoir of Holocaust survivor Jona Oberski.