The Mountains of the Moon

The Mountains of the Moon 1987

5.30

This visually striking drama is taken from the classic Japanese novel Tales Of Genji by Marasaki Shikibu. Set in modern Portugal, Joao (Luis Miguel Cintra) is a left-wing political leader and ladies man with a bright future. His ex-wife Isabel (Manuela de Freitas) both loves and hates him as Joao plays on her wavering emotional state. He is sent to Italy to retrieve wayward family member Antonia (Caroline Chaniolleau), the beautiful young woman with a terrorist boyfriend. Joao is forced to recognize his feelings as the political and amorous climate changes around him.

1987

Amok

Amok 1993

6.00

Whenever people are released from their society's constraints, there is the possibility that they will behave badly, at least according to the rules of the society they have left behind. This seems to have been particularly the case for Europeans living in colonial establishments in Africa and Asia. In this drama, based on a story by Stefan Zweig, Dr. Steiner (Andrzej Seweryn) was caught with his fingers in the till at a German hospital. Rather than prosecute him, they gave him the option of emigrating elsewhere. He chose to serve at a clinic in a remote part of Portuguese Goa. He has been on his best behavior for years, but when the beautiful wife (Fanny Ardant) of a diplomat comes to him asking for an abortion, he is tempted to ask for sexual favors in return, and his life swiftly goes out of control.

1993

Ballad of Dog Beach

Ballad of Dog Beach 1987

6.00

In Portugal, in the 60s, the corpse of a man appears on Dog's Beach. The corpse is identified as the major Dantas, a man wanted by authorities after his escape from a military prison where he was awaiting trial for insurrection.

1987

Trails

Trails 1978

7.10

Parallel tales of young couples desperately escaping cruel false fathers, each couple on the run across different regions of the country and during increasingly contemporary time periods.

1978

Blood

Blood 1989

6.80

Nino, tough but sickly, and his older brother Vicente live in the country with their father. After their father disappears ― we’re never sure why ― murder is suggested. Vicente brings his girlfriend to the house, and a different kind of family is established as the three youngsters grow fiercely protective of each other. But their uncle grows suspicious about the fate of the missing father and forcibly kidnaps Nino, taking him away to the city and leaving Vicente to locate him there.

1989

Oxalá

Oxalá 1981

2.00

A man exiled in Paris makes various trips to Portugal after the Carnation Revolution. Each trip is represented by a woman.

1981

Hovering Over the Water

Hovering Over the Water 1993

7.10

Laura Rossellini, a widow from Rome, vacations on the Algarve coast one hot summer. One day while sunbathing, she finds a wounded man named Robert drifting in the surf on a rubber raft. She takes him home, and, after he is revived, learns his story. As they talk, their mutual attraction grows, until a group of armed men suddenly arrive looking for Robert.

1993

Street of No Return

Street of No Return 1989

5.50

A rock star-turned-bum, his vocal chords severed at the height of his career for the love of a woman, drunkenly roams the city, torn apart by sponsored race riots. When accused of murder, he may have the chance to get revenge on the magnate who maimed him.

1989

Visit, or Memories and Confessions

Visit, or Memories and Confessions 1993

7.50

A long-hidden, personal doc about leaving a beloved house by the late, revered Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira.

1993

Serenity

Serenity 1987

5.70

Luís Medeiros, Azorean painter, meets two odd characters in an exhibit in Lisbon: Inês, a charming woman, and Ed, a sneaky man. The two reveal to have with them a precious document that might be threatening to Luís. He brings them back home but his serenity is over due to an unexpected chain of events.

1987

The Sound of the Shaking Earth

The Sound of the Shaking Earth 1990

6.20

Freely based on Gide ('Paludes') and Hawthorne ('Wakefield'), this is a film about a writer who never wrote anything and who blows at nightfall the breath of frost. The poem by Carlos Queiroz to which the above sentences belong is not cited in 'O som da Terra a Tremer', but the atmosphere is that, between written letters never received. Fiction within fiction, stories within stories, like those Chinese boxes in which there is always one inside another. Or the two margins of the same river, always being lateral.

1990

Poor George

Poor George 1993

5.10

One night Jorge will meet with a Japanese industrialist, who will allow him to abandon his teaching position and resume his chemical work. However, when he gets home he finds a person there.

1993

The Blue Eyes of Yonta

The Blue Eyes of Yonta 1992

6.80

A beautiful, intelligent and flirtatious young girl, Yonta, is secretly in love with a friend of her parents, Vicente, a hero of the war of independence. Vicente is unaware of her passion as she is of the love of a young man who sends her anonymous love letters.

1992

The Emissaries of Khalom

The Emissaries of Khalom 1988

6.00

End of the 20th century. A group of scientists executes a project aiming to prevent a nuclear war with the planet Khalom. From their experimental project, involving manipulating events in the past, two mysterious human creatures travel between the present and the 19th century, and back - getting in love with four different persons.

1988

A True and Faithful Account

A True and Faithful Account 1989

5.70

The young girl, Antónia Margarida Castelo Branco, is handed over by her mother to Brás Telles de Meneses because of the obscure interests between rural aristocratic families in the North. Brás is a ruined man, a bohemian with a reputation for violence and erratic behaviour. Antonia’s fortune is the first sacrifice made by the young wife. Fascinated by the man who humiliates and ill-treats her, she follows him in a pilgrimage to increasingly barren lands, to increasingly less hospitable houses.

1989

Day of Despair

Day of Despair 1992

6.20

Portrait of the last days of the life of Portuguese writer Camilo Castelo Branco.

1992

O Rei das Berlengas ou a Independência das Ditas

O Rei das Berlengas ou a Independência das Ditas 1978

7.00

The disastrous attempts of D. Lucas Telmo Midões to achieve in 1981 the independence of the Berlengas islands - lost eight centuries ago, during the conquests of D. Afonso Henriques.

1978

A Fuga

A Fuga 1978

1

In the 1950s, a handful of prisoners attempt a daring escape from Peniche, a castle on the north coast of Portugal for the political dissidents of the regime.

1978

A Confederação: O Povo É Que Faz A História

A Confederação: O Povo É Que Faz A História 1978

5.20

In an imaginary future, Portugal consists of an association of states - North and South - with zones of specific influence. City under vigilance, Lisbon is inhabited by a repressed and militarized population. Maria and António stand out in this city and surrender themselves to a submersive love. 1978

1978

Nem Pássaro Nem Peixe

Nem Pássaro Nem Peixe 1978

1

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.

1978