Patrícia Saramago

Previously focused on Asian directors, “Jeonju Digital Project 2007” takes a look at Europe. The Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa, the German filmmaker Harun Farocki, and the French filmmaker Eugène Green participated in this project.

40-year-old Daniel has been suspended from active police work and is under internal investigation for violence. When Sara, his internet love affair, stops answering his texts he decides to drive north in search of her, starting on what is apparently a fool's errand. He shows Sara's picture around, but nobody seems to recognize the woman. Until eventually one guy pops up, saying he can put the two in touch under very specific conditions.

The couple Laura and Israël have a five-year-old son, Lucas. They live together but seem to have lost interest in one another's thoughts and cares. Their relationship seems headed for the rocks, and the only one who seems to still be looking for something from life is Lucas.

This documentary follows a 70 years old, Angolan nurse on a nearly impossible humanitarian mission into her home country. In a southern region that was specially affected by the long lasting, recent civil war, the local hospital has to be restructured. At this place where accidental death, poverty and lack of hygiene continue to be a part of people's daily life, the subversive presence of mystical forces seem to reinvent the meaning of life.

An unflinching, fragmentary look at a handful of self-destructive, marginalized people, but taking as main focus the heroin-addicted Vanda Duarte.

Adi and Stefan go on an adventure through Latin America with only their guitars and an old school bus. Exposed to hardship and injustice they discover that music transcends all.

A man died under mysterious circumstances. An insurance company expert has to visit the four women in his life - his mother, his widow, his daughter and his mistress - to find out the causes of death. With each account, the deceased will appear in a new light, to the point where it is doubtful that it is the same man.

Undaunted by a commission to make a film about his mentors and aesthetic exemplars, the filmmaking team of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Costa records with great sensitivity and insight the exacting process by which the two re-edit their film Sicilia!, discussing and arguing over each cut and its effect. Incorporating comments about the influence of figures as diverse as Chaplin and Eisenstein, about the ethical and aesthetic implications of film technique and such matters as rhythm, sound mixing, and acting. The film becomes a tour de force, immersing us in the mysteries of cinema as practiced by some of its greatest creators. Costa calls the film both his first comedy and his first love story.

An impossible love. Two young people who love each other. Vera and João can’t find in this life the space, time, or identity to resolve their love story.

A widowed theater actor relives his memory of a young love.

North of Italy, the von Kettens dispute the forces of the Episcopate of Trent. Herr Ketten seeks marriage in a distant country, Portugal. After their honeymoon journey back home, Ketten leaves again for the war. Eleven years elapsed… Rumours are running about the presence of that 'foreigner' in the castle. Some say she's a heretic. Until one day, the Bishop of Trento ends up dying and, with the signature of peace, falls the background of von Ketten's life. Will the Portuguese win, where death seems to be moving in?

Luís Mário Lopes wrote the solo A Boa Alma for Mónica Calle in 2015, based on the works of Bertolt Brecht marking the departure of Casa Conveniente from Cais do Sodré and their arrival in the new venue in zona J, Chelas. The original score is by JP Simões.

A story about art and educated men, and how their art and culture reveal themselves useless in the face of the harsh realities of the 20th century life.

Roberto is one of those men to whom simulation has become the greatest art. He is an unmoved, inscrutable, mysterious man. But the truth is that Robert feels an intimate, deep tedium. The boredom of those who have already exhausted all the pleasures of life. The only thing still surprising him is the fact that nothing surprises him anymore. One evening he has an overwhelming encounter with a woman. For his own bewilderment, he discovers the sublime horrors in which the woman has sank.

Anxo returns to his home village in the Galician countryside. There, he is greeted with concern by the victorious and the defeated, who see in him the danger of diving back into their silenced memories.

Com Que Voz is a documentary that recounts the life of Alain Oulman, an important cultural figure during the nineteen-sixties and seventies, who left an indelible mark on Portuguese and French society. The film, shot in Lisbon, Paris and Tel Aviv, features celebrated authors, politicians and musicians, such as: Patricia Highsmith, Amos Oz, Amalia Rodrigues and Mario Soares.

An artistic vision of a phenomenon in Spanish history, with repercussions in Europe and the West: the exile of 2,895 republican children in the Soviet Union due to the Spanish Civil War; the German invasion of the USSR in World War II; the 19 years spent in the USSR until his return to Spain (1937-1956). It is also autobiographical in nature, because this author revisits the memories of her mother and aunt, who were part of this group of children.

Joáo Bénard da Costa, director of the Portuguese National Film Archives [deceased in 2009], interviews the dean of contemporaneous film directors [96-years-old then]. Two humanists of different philosophical backgrounds, both with their long, entire lives dedicated to culture in general (music, painting, literature) and to film in particular, discuss freely, sometimes haltingly, the director's power as a creator or a magician, the philosophy beyond particular scenes in classic movies, film technique, the importance of color, sound and music to films, art versus entertainment, and much more. Their talk takes place in a museum room, seating in front of "The Annunciation" (a 1510 oil painting by João Vaz, a Portuguese artist), which eventually leads to a discussion of 'Leonardo da Vinci', and the relationship between a trend-setter master and his disciples.

One of the most important figures in contemporary cinema, Pedro Costa's celebrated music documentary is a mesmerizing portrait of French actress-turned-singer Jeanne Balibar, a transfixing, cigarette-smoking chanteuse with an intense devotion to her craft. Photographed in shimmering black-and-white and featuring a soundtrack of jazz-inflected pop songs, the film is a luminous exploration of the creative process.

"In the beginning of this project, I wanted to do a documentary film based on this book by Luiz Ruffato. However, I ended up doing a feature film with many links to documentary. I wanted to know what made Brazilians want to emigrate to Portugal. I chose working with amateur actors and non-actors in both cities, so their own life stories and experiences could be in the film. I did the other way round from the writer. He found these people and made them characters of his book. I looked for people who had similar stories to those described in the book, and made them characters of my film. When I read the book, I was seduced by its "false documentary" characteristic. The book was all written as if it was the transcription of an oral interview the writer had done in Lisbon. I decided to keep this narrative in the film, by a narration with the main character talking to the camera. It's a film about emigration. About dreams and disappointments," says Barahona

Jorge de Sena was forced to leave his country. First he moved to Brazil, and later to the USA. He never returned to Portugal. During his 20-year-long exile, he kept an epistolary correspondence with Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. These letters are a testimony of the profound friendship between the two poets, letters of longing and of desire to “fill years of distance with hours of conversation”. Through excerpts and verses, a dialog is established, revealing their divergent opinions but mostly their strong bond, and their efforts to preserve it until their last breaths.

Life is as unchanging as ever in the village: the sun sets between memories. The arrival of a young outsider changes everything. The old are offered a new gift and they accept it. The dreams awaken an old song which pulses through the village. 'With Fate driving the cart of everything along the road of nothing.'