Pedro M. Ruivo

Summer of 1982, a beach in the south of Portugal. Rui and his parents live closed in their worlds, blind to the failure that characterizes them as a family and condemns them to the malaise of survival. Rui will have school exams but he is only interested in music and in the exploration of imaginary worlds that he constantly sketches in drawings. Only Joana seems capable of pulling him out of his autism. The girl's vitality fascinates him.

When the child Manuel wanders into a garden that is off-limits to him, he meets an unidentified fisherman, and another boy -- the boy is actually himself several years down the road. Manuel experiences three different versions of his encounters in the garden, revealing that fate can have several twists and turns in one's life, depending on decisions that are made early on.

Portugal 1997. A nuclear accident left the the country without energy and divided between zones, some of them interdicted because of the contamination. The economic crisis is dramatic and unemployment is almost total.

An angry young man goes to Europe to find his father, a '60s radical turned doctor in exile.

Maria de Noronha, at 13 years old, suffers from high fevers and violent hemoptysis caused by a ruthless tuberculosis. To alleviate the pain, she gathers poppies from her garden and, at night, places them on her bed pillows. But the poppies have a devastating effect. Her deep sleep is invaded by ghosts and hallucinations: the luxury and decadence of the Portuguese 16th century. A broken nation, occupied by strangers.

Two friends, Nuno (Pedro Laginha) and Flash (Miguel Borges) live together and decide to rent one room of the house in order to have more money to pay the rent. that's when they meet Carla (Maria João Bastos) who might change their lives forever.