Manifesto dos Danados

Just released from prison, Léa returns home to the Brasilia favela of Sol Nascente and joins up with her half-sister Chitara, the fearless leader of an all-female gang that steals and refines oil from underground pipes and sells gasoline to a clandestine network of motorcyclists. Living in constant opposition to Jair Bolsonaro’s fiercely authoritarian and militarized government, Chitara’s women claim the streets for themselves as a declaration of radical political resistance on behalf of ex-cons and the oppressed.

On a night like so many others, indistinguishable from the previous or the next, Carlos sees himself thrown out of his bedroom. Beyond his own door, a rat has taken over his belongings, without a courtesy call or warning. This is the second work by João Niza Ribeiro screened at Curtas.

Issa, a footballer from Guinea-Bissau who plays in Portugal, is contacted by two filmmakers who want to know more about his life and make a documentary. Exposing the voices behind the camera, Nha Sunhu is a reflection on the gaze, bias, and representation of the other.

They usually get around on bikes or scooters, darting through the streets of major European cities to deliver goods to customers almost unnoticed. They do this illegally for large corporations. One of them is Omar, who comes from Benin. The young man lives in Porto without documents, works as a courier for one of the major restaurant chains, and every day risks being caught by police patrols targeting migrants.

"I've been on this cliff for almost a year, here on the lookout. Always aware of the sea and the enemy, even though I've never seen him. The man riding a horse gave me a new order, to be even more on alert, waiting for a mirage, for a ghost that will not come."

In a slightly dystopian version of our reality, the Fontainhas neighborhood - Porto - is at the center of a dark plot of real estate speculation. Disappearances and other disturbing elements arouse the suspicions of one of the neighbors.