Nádia Yracema

A theatre having national as part of its name, at the top of a square, reflecting a country’s history. But which one? This is a voyage through the various narratives about D. Maria II National Theatre, forged through the intentions of the several regimes that intended to convey their own ideologies within the theatre’s mission. This is also the story of those who fought against it, opposed the institution and became part of it. How can one become heir of these stories, even if never having set foot inside.

Sheila, a young Brazilian woman, receives an unexpected sexual proposition from her Portuguese boyfriend.

Pérola (39 years), a female lawyer, return to Angola, for her younger sister´s “Alambamento” (traditional Angolan ceremony where dowries and promises are exchanged between a couple) more than 20 years living abroad. On coming back, she realises that she does not fit in that environment anymore. The world that saw her come to life is now uncomfortable. In the beginning, she remains apart, watching all her parents do and say in a judgmental way, but as the party unfolds, Pérola starts to see the beauty of the place. That land and it´s People reveal a charm that she was not expecting and suddenly she understands that all her loneliness and emptiness she has felt all those years was only her home beckoning her back.

Prima and Lebsi are two young Afro-descendant women who grew up on the outskirts of Lisbon, daughters of immigrants who occasionally meet at a house party, on Cousin's birthday. Lebsi dates Rave, a young street dancer who makes a living dancing in the streets of central Lisbon, and they have a daughter in common. Prima is an orphan of both her father and mother and learned to let go of herself very early on. She lives alone with a cat and found selling cannabis as her alternative to generating money and paying the bills. Still, she is also a respected beat producer in the neighborhood. Both want to improve their lives, they dream of getting out of the “zone” but in the meantime they are living as best they can, asserting themselves in their way.

Idling afternoons, drugs, heartbreaks, psychedelic moods immersed in music. An adrenaline rush. Lisbon as the backdrop for a drifting youth.

Follows the story of Johannes Van Almeida, a painter who was just released from prison and wants to start his life anew, but everything changes when art dealer Antoinette, and international actress in crisis Florence Lizz, get in his way.

Two siblings face their problems and undergo a profound inner transformation at a time when they both rediscover themselves. Lidia struggles to cope with her newborn baby: she can’t handle the expectations, doesn’t recognize her body, and distances herself from home and her boyfriend. Her brother Lauro works in a funeral agency. Divorced with a son, he grapples with accepting his bisexuality. Though the siblings rarely saw each other, their shared challenges bring them closer on a journey of rediscovery and profound inner transformation. The light at the end of the tunnel isn’t an illusion; the tunnel is.

A wise grandmother, a 9-month pregnant warrior mother, and a little girl live in a dry world. Water is scarce, but they are resilient and have found a way of surviving. The moonrise is approaching, which seems to influence their relations and dreams…

Based on one of the short stories from the "Decameron", "The Convent Gardener" mirrors the story of Young Gardener Masetto and presents, in two separate parts, the story of a young man and a young woman who pretend to be mute in order to get a job as a gardener in a convent inhabited by several women and several men, respectively. Because the young gardeners are mute and, therefore, assumably unable to reveal the secrets of the convent’s residents, all the women living there take action to sleep with the young man just as all the men do to sleep with the young woman.

On the shores of Lisbon, Arriaga, a 25 years old boy from a middle-class family of emigrants walks alone through the silent and wrinkled streets by vices of the nightlife. Arriaga deals with his self-destructive alter ego to be accepted among the youth of his neighborhood. Everything happens in one place, everything revolves around a single moment, what is suspicious only the unexpected can unfold.

The silent tale of an immigrant woman looking for a better life. As she struggles with loneliness and poverty, she is unable to forget what she left behind. A look at the exploitation of immigrants in Portugal, through the eyes of a greenhouse worker.

Mrs. Hope is a charismatic octogenarian widow, living alone in a pleasant apartment in Lisbon along with her cat Baltazar, since her husband died, years ago. Mrs. Hope is not like some other older people. She likes ballroom dancing, aqua aerobics sports and from time to time visiting the neighborhood chapel to say goodbye to her old fellows who passed away letting escape some less orthodox comments that make laugh even the most serious. She had two sons, but only one is alive - Artur. He is married with Leonor and together they have a son Rodrigo, a wild teenager and the only Mrs. Hope grandson. Herminia is her best friend, but her truly fellow is Paulina, a bold Angolan woman, mother of the teenager Joyce that Mrs. Hope considers as her goddaughter.