Dawn

A short time has passed. Both arrived to a point of no return, a break is the only way out. One of them has to take the first step. This morning both decide to leave, definitely, without the other realizing it. The house remains empty.

Through a city that carries the weight of broken expectations and tough absencies, we follow the day of three young adults. César who got into a photoshoot by accident, Chloé who hopes to find a place to do her own work, and Helena who is back in her town for some days, only to find the living shadow of a loss.

A man who grew up in the '80s, in the midst of the pirate-radio scene, works now at a big, modern radio station, but still holds on to his love for a mysterious female lead singer of a now long gone band. He sets himself to start another pirate-radio, now unlegalized, trying to find her.

Carica is only seven years old and wants a bicycle for Christmas. But his family has no money and offers him a book. The grandfather tells him the story of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. On the first day of rain and sun, Carica embarks on adventure.

Karlon, born in Pedreira dos Húngaros (a slum in the outskirts of Lisbon) and a pioneer of Cape Verdean creole rap, runs away from the housing project to which he had been relocated.

One night, a group of workers realises that the administration is stealing machines and raw materials from their own factory. As they organize to survey the equipment and block the relocation of production, they are forced to stand at their posts with no work to do, as a form of retaliation, while negotiations over general lay-offs take place. The pressure leads to a breakdown of the workers along with the world around them.

The word panchão was first heard in Macao. From the Chinese pan-tcheong or pau-tcheong, dictionaries define it as a Macanese regionalism also known as China cracker. Who inhabits the ancient IEC Long firecracker factory?

The Ave Valley is, for more than a century, a territory seized by an imposing industry. Amongst ruins and operating factories, we descend the river on a journey alongside the banks of the present, unveiling the marks of the past.

“Campo de Marte” (The Field of Mars) was in the ancient times Rome’s training arena for war. At the outskirts of Lisbon, “Campo” hosts today Europe’s largest military base. In this place military troops train fictional missions, astronomy aficionados observe the stars and a boy plays the piano for the wild deers lurking in the dark.

The young and promising genetics researcher Thomas Nielsen will stop at nothing to become the first person to identify the elements in man that trigger aggression. To achieve faster results he performs illegal tests on the convicted mass murderer Iparrah. But when Thomas one day gets caught, he injects the unauthorized test agent itself. This turns out to have unexpected effects ...

In 1974, after years of civil war, the Portuguese and their descendants fled the colony of Angola where groups working for independence gradually claim their territory back. A tribal girl discovers love and death when her path crosses that of a young Portuguese soldier. Meanwhile, another group of Portuguese soldiers is barracked inside an infinite wall from which they will have to escape once the past comes out of the grave to claim its long-awaited justice.

A journey through Lisbon’s suburbs through the lives of a handful of musicians establishing their place to exist in a city of complex identity struggles. Different generations and backgrounds meet, Angola to São Tome, Cabo Verde and Guine Bissau represented by old musicians and young producers.

They walk in pairs; they go door to door and visit the homes of those who wish to listen. They discuss matters of faith, family, demureness, religion and being. Their quest is personal, it is about proving themselves, an initiation that lasts for the two-year period they spend away from home. The Elders and the Sisters, young Mormon missionaries, leave their country, study a different language and culture and become immersed in a spirit of mission. They aspire to be role models for the perfect boys and girls.

Mother and son move into a new house, a new city, a new story.

An observation of post-colonial economic relations through the intersecting trajectories of two Filipino women: one preparing to leave her native island to work as a domestic in Europe, the other to return for good.