Astrakan 79

A documentary about Álvaro Siza Vieira in Cape Verde and his project to restore the old town of Ribeira Grande, the first city to be built by the Portuguese in Cape Verde on the island of Santiago in 1462.

At an old manor house in northern Portugal, Ana helps her friend, Emília, the elderly housekeeper who is determined to continue to keep the unoccupied house in order for the owners who are never there. As the seasons turn, Mónica, Ana's daughter, challenges her mother's choices and the three generations of women search to understand where they belong in a world that is rapidly fading, where the cycle of life is renovated only through inevitable endings.

“The whistle man” was a typical character of the portuguese sea-side during the Fascist Portugal. His story has so many versions that he has become a myth: A poor crazy man who lost his baby girl, a professional homeless who lived from the charity of rich families, a pedofile or a summer father Christmas. His whistle announced his arrival and attracted boys and girls or made them run away. Last year I found 30 seconds of footage of this man which until then was just a memory. Is he more real now?

The painter Ana Marchand always felt a bit dislocated in her family. The love of art and travel, where did she get those from? As a young woman she saw a travel book written by her uncle Maurizio Piscicelli and finally understood. Catarina Mourão follows Ana’s familiar and spiritual journey. Who was Maurizio? Who is Ana? The face of one, the face of the other. Reincarnation are the several lives we live.

'One day I realized it no longer made sense to make things to hang on walls'... Lourdes Castro became known as the artist 'who took care of shadows'. Throughout her international career as an artist, Lourdes developed the concept of shadow, giving it different forms and finally reducing it to the minimum and dematerializing it. She has lived in Munich, Berlin and Paris, but 40 years ago she decided to return to Madeira, her birth place, where she has lived ever since 'in the shadows'. 'What is Lourdes 'taking care of' nowadays?

For as long as she remembers, Francisca lives with an inexplicable and uncontrollable aversion to belly buttons. Nothing makes her more anxious than this simple part of the body and the shapes in the world that resemble it. When therapy isn't enough to solve her cherished phobia , Francisca turns to other types of methods - without any scientific basis and not recommended for anyone who suffers from the same condition.

A documentary about a woman from the town of Chandor, Goa. The documentary is a running commentary of her current life in Chandor, as she reminises over her Portuguese-Indian past.

Every family has its secrets, the family of Portuguese filmmaker Mourão included. As the granddaughter of the well-known writer Tomaz de Figueiredo, she picks apart several of them in an intimate yet universally meaningful way. As such, her film also becomes a portrait of dictatorship and resistance and of the urge to create art.