Luísa Cruz

Every night, in danger of being beheaded, Scheherazade tells King Shahryar unfinished tales to continue them the following night, hence defying his promise of murdering his new wives after their wedding night. Scheherazade tells King Shahryar her stories but these are not those in the book. As in the book, these stories are tragic and comical, with rich and poor, powerless and powerful people, filled with surprising and extraordinary events.

In 1917, outside the parish of Fátima, Portugal, a 10-year-old girl and her two younger cousins witness multiple visitations of the Virgin Mary, who tells them that only prayer and suffering will bring an end to World War I. As secularist government officials and Church leaders try to force the children to recant their story, word of the sighting spreads across the country, inspiring religious pilgrims to flock to the site in hopes of witnessing a miracle..

The story of Brazil’s first emperor, returning to Europe on board the English ship Warspite. The trip makes Pedro conquer his fears and face his life from a personal point of view. He goes back in time and relives outstanding moments of his earlier life – since his childhood, when in 1808 he arrived coming from Portugal with his family, until he left in the dead of the night, in 1831, running away from Brazil.

The disappearance of his wife leaves Fernando, a quiet geography teacher, completely devastated. Aimless, he assumes another man’s identity as a gardener on a Portuguese estate, where he forms an unexpected friendship with the owner, stepping into a new life that isn’t his own.

Scheherazade narrates three more tales, supposedly selected from the 470th, 484th and 497th nights of her ordeal: “It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that a Judge will cry instead of giving out her sentence. A runaway murderer will wander through the land for over forty days and will teletransport himself to escape the Guard while dreaming of prostitutes and partridges. A wounded cow will reminisce about a thousand-year-old olive tree while saying what she must say, which will sound none less than sad!

In 2017, in Portugal, devastating wildfires destroyed forests and killed children and adults; some died in their villages, others were trapped on a road. Communication failed, and the villages had no shelters. The film’s action does not take place in 2017, but at a later time. It follows a small group of people who lost their dearest ones and are now in the process of learning how to live after everything they have lost.

Three homeless teenage rejects struggle to survive together. Of them, Andreia is pregnant, while Pedro and Ricardo hustle, steal and are exploited by a pornographer.

A cowboy arrives in a town in search of his daughter, a native policewoman arrests various offenders in a snowy landscape, while her niece, a basketball coach, reunites with her grandfather for a decisive journey that will shape her future, and a bird flies through time and space and begins to enter the minds and dreams of a native tribe in the Amazon jungle.

The character of a novel gains life to torment the author, revisiting and reliving the story of a crime.

In a distant past, Léon and Elvira Berthelini, itinerant artists, make their living hopping from town to town. In Covarronca, harassed by the Police Commissioner, they are forced to spend the night out in the open. That’s when they meet Stubbs, a young Cambridge student, with whom they find shelter in the home of a painter at odds with his wife. In return for the hospitality, they remind their hosts that the love of art resolves the art of love. Meanwhile, an unusual curse sends them on absurd journeys into the 21st century, where the future of social security and of a rock band are at stake.

Some of the chapters from Arabian Nights are adapted to a modern Portugal in this epic.

The darkness of night, a barely lit place, motorbikes flirting with danger: a group of teenagers at a crossroads playing chicken with unaware passing cars. Jota (Eduardo Frazão) stands out from this group, unclassifiable; his destiny has no straight lines save those on the asphalt. Jota lives in permanent conflict with everything and everybody in his small town. No room for stillness. And then comes Margarida (Ana Moreira). Jota has no inside, Margarida has no outside. In spite of, or because of, that, they meet. What can they do? They can just ride, they can get away with it even if its all messed up. Love is to be lived.

Between February and July 1858, in the Massabielle cave, the Virgin appeared eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous, a miserable little girl from Lourdes. A true revolution in the heart of the Second Empire that shakes the established order by his universal message of love and prayer.

Cape Verde, 1964. At the feet of a mighty volcano, the traditional Cape Verdean society is undergoing a steady change. The old land-owning aristocracy is disintegrating. A class of "mulattos" begins to emerge, with a trade-based financial power that threatens the landlords. A new identity arises, a mix of old and new, of African and Portuguese culture, sensual and dynamic. The songs of Cesária Évora follow this inevitable transformation. From the novel by Henrique Teixeira de Sousa.

On April 25, 1974, a man walked alone in Largo do Carmo. He knocked on the GNR military barracks door and entered, unarmed and without any escorts. Inside, the Government’s chief, Marcelo Caetano, waited, surrounded by the military and the people. The man who stared at him that afternoon and demanded surrender, guaranteeing his safety, had just led Santarém’s Artillery 1 regiment in taking the capital. Without firing a single shot, he managed to overthrow a regime that was over 48 years old. That was the last step to take and he took it, without hesitation, becoming the unavoidable figure of the day that marked the beginning of democracy in Portugal

The story of five generations of the Austrian-Brazilian Knieps family, from the inauguration of their family-owned Great Mystical Circus in the 1910s up to the early 21st century, following both the family and the circus from their prime through to their decadence.

A love story between a failed musician and a girl in a dinosaur costume.

Lisbon, today. In a room of a house at Douradores Street, a man invents dreams and theorizes about them. The essence of the dreams itself becomes physical, palpable, visible. The text itself materializes in its musicality. And, in front of our eyes, this music can be felt with the ears, brain and heart. It spreads itself in the street where the man lives, in the city that he loves above all and over the entire world.

Algarve, late 90s. Following the death of her grandmother, Milene - a strong young woman full of life despite a slight mental handicap - divides her life between her family of notables and a Cape Verdean family that keeps her going, whom she met when her grandmother died. The wind that whistles in the cranes plunges us into the world of two families against the backdrop of Portugal's recent past.

Can a turtle, the most pacific animal on earth, start a range of significant events that are going to forever change a couple's life? After dividing all their assets, Arnaldo e Barbara still have one decision to make before they formalize their separation: what to do with the turtle? Amongst hesitation and failed solutions, unintended burglaries, police stations, plastic natures and misunderstandings, a single turtle fate is postponing this couple's separation. Because they know that, when they give the turtle back to its natural habitat, their relationship will be over. Are they ready for that last step?

The film is liberally inspired by the period when Eça de Queiroz was Portuguese Consul in Cuba, when still a Spanish colony. Eça de Queiroz struggles against local authorities in his defense of Chinese workers, brought to the sugar plantations by greedy middlemen and exploited as slaves. Two parallel stories unfold, that of a Chinese girl which Eça de Queiroz saves from the clutches of one of the island’s most powerful slave owners, and the other of a romance involving a young American woman on holidays in Havana.

The start of Luís Rovisco’s old age isn’t exactly cheerful. Already in his sixties, he’s still roaming the country by himself, carrying out his tasks — increasingly less real — as sales director for the company SegurVale. Sadness, resignation? Not with the songs Luís makes up behind the wheel, and that take over this film from start to finish.

Two years after consorting with the wrong people cost him his job as public prosecutor, Eduardo Silva is a measly defense attorney, who works from his hotel room. Loosing a bit from her fellow-angler uncle, he gives a shot as unpaid apprentice to freshly-graduated gypsy Marcia Amaya, whom nobody would consider hiring so far, but is soon offered crossing to the office of Silva's successor as prosecutor. Their first client is common-as-muck Joana Soares, accused of murdering her beached-up husband after a public fight, without an alibi, claiming a blackout. Eduardo is countered while working out, with help from Marcia's and Joana's families, how the affair actually relates to illegal trade in medicine, with twists including the involvement of a crime lord.

Rita is fifteen and spends the summer between warm afternoons of teenage love and party nights with her friend Sara. From Portugal to the South Pacific, the pleasures of this routine will take a turn when the young girl visits the art show of a new neighbor in the local community.

Catarina embarks on a dangerous journey to find who made her mother vanish. The Torres family seems to be the obvious suspect, but within them there's Vasco, the love of Catarina's life. Two opposed sides connected by love.

“Nazaré” is a contemporary love story in a reality that plagues the country every summer. It is a narrative about the struggle of those who are defeated by flames, rebirth and hope.

Vitória returns determined to recover her children, Afonso, Matilde, and Francisco, after serving an unjust prison sentence. Her father-in-law, Manuel Mendonça, a powerful and manipulative man, has managed to separate his grandchildren from their mother and will do everything to keep her away from her family. With the help of Jorge, a prestigious lawyer and her first love, Vitória will face the Mendonça empire and fight for what she loves most: her children. Vitória is a story of resilience, courage, and the purest of feelings: a mother's love.

When a boat loaded with cocaine sinks off his home island, Eduardo sees a risky but exciting opportunity to make money and fulfill impossible dreams.

The search for love and redemption... Helena is a former secretary of António Fontes Morais’s who cunningly managed to get married to her boss, thus earning the title of a trophy wife. Together, they had two children: Tomás and Camila. Their firstborn is a playboy who has been living in the United States and Camila is a spoiled young woman who spends her days spending money and on her phone. The family enjoys a lavish lifestyle, but António doesn’t go without a driver and armed security since his brother Fausto was murdered, leaving his son Miguel under the care of his aunt and uncle. Helena’s hatred for the Rocha family has grown as much as the cousins Tomás and Miguel's love for Laura. So, without realizing, the nurse sees herself in the middle of a love triangle that will undermine the harmony between the Fontes Morais and Rocha families. Still, Verónica, who is totally in love with Tomás, and Helena will resort to any means necessary in order to get rid of Laura.

The story of stories... Nazaré is happy in her life with Duarte and their children, Alice and little Zé. But her world is suddenly turned upside down when police finds drugs inside the fish she’s transporting and counterfeit money in the cold storage at Geliré. Behind all this is Verónica, who was rescued at sea and is back to settle the score. Nazaré is certain that it was her husband’s aunt that framed her, who she sees in a car while she's being arrested. With Toni's help, Nazaré then turns into a fugitive. By disguising herself and taking on a false identity, Nazaré is now Carla Isabel, at least until she manages to prove her innocence. While on the run, Nazaré gets in the High Note tour bus and is forced to leave Duarte and her children behind. As she manages to gain the trust of Mel, Leandro and Sandra, besides the label’s bus driver, she also lends a hand as a bodyguard for Romeu’s daughter.

“Vai Correr Tudo Bem” is a Portuguese comedy web series created by and starring Guilherme Geirinhas. The show follows a fictionalized version of Geirinhas as he humorously navigates themes such as anxiety, impostor syndrome, the pressures of creative work and the emotional challenges of being a comedian in the public eye.

Despite the hardship, there are those who fight and overcome... Marta is a single mother and a humble woman who’s doing her best to offer her two daughters, Susana e Beatriz, a good life. But when she finds out that her younger daughter has a rare and serious condition, everything changes in this family’s life. Susana decides to seek out Rodrigo, the child´s father and a wealthy man who can afford to pay the much needed surgery abroad. Even though he didn't even know he had a daughter, Rodrigo accepts to pay for the surgery on the condition that he’s granted custody. Marta is then faced with the greatest dilemma in her life: in order to save his daughter, she’ll have to give her up. Rodrigo will end up using Beatriz in an elaborate ploy to get closer to Marta. However, his cousin Gabriel’s return to Portugal will make things difficult for him, as Gabriel will fall in love with Marta, thus turning into Rodrigo's rival.