Tale About the Cat and the Moon

In the 40's, after the Spanish Civil War, many republicans defeated by the nationalist forces of Franco found refuge on the bordering mountains in the north of Portugal. Some saw them as brigands, others gave them shelter and helped them on the sly to police forces of Salazar. They were... the Outlaws.

Glaxo Wellcome Anti-Tobacco Commissioned Film. (23 Sec. )

Nestor, a man with several obsessive-compulsive behaviours lives in an unstable houseboat which never stops oscillating.

Six animated shorts eschew traditional animation by featuring supernatural elements and darker themes, such as alien snatchings, life among mannequins and a spiritual rebirth. Among the films are "Ape," which features a couple fighting over a cooked monkey every night; "The Story of the Cat and the Moon," which is a tale of unrequited love; and "Gentle Spirit," which is based on a Fyodor Dostoyevsky story.

In a rocky island exposed to the elements, a lighthouse keeper lives alone with his daughter. From the top of his tower, the father keeps vigil to the horizon line and for the safety of the passing sails. With no other company, the girl develops a unique complicity with the sea, which brings her toys in the shape of debris on the shore. Following the rhythm of the waves, these objects will unveil previous events, memories that the tide cannot erase.

A nun enjoys her bicycle.

The refugee, the fled, the persecuted. The hidden, the migrant, the foreigner. The newcomer, seen with distrust, looks of fear and suspicion. In this evocative sand animation by filmmaker Pedro Serrazina, shadows, contrasts and a disturbing sound construction relive ancestral prejudices of the other, so ancient and so present. Clandestine words, whispered phrases, memories written on winter nights by candlelights.