Ivo M. Ferreira

The series develops around cases of homicides that occurred during the summer, at the time of the economic and social crisis that affected Portugal.

Early 80’s. A group of criminal’s spreads terror across the Algarve with more than 20 bank robberies. The gang is led by a man they call "The Doctor" and a carpenter who earns the nickname of "The Cowboy". Captured and sentenced to 18 years in prison he becomes the protagonist of the bloodiest escape in Portuguese prison history.

The underground lives and struggles of communist party militants during the Portuguese 'Estado Novo' regime.

Lisbon, 1980s, Rosa, a woman joins a group of young people disappointed at the post-Revolutionary Portugal. Part of a far-left clandestine armed organization, they share political views and a daily life that makes them grow closer. But their idealism collides head-on with a changing country and a large-scale police operation targeting them. Fleeing on a road with no return and no way forward, their existence is made up of bank robberies, bombs, friendships, prison, love and death. Trapped, their only choice is to keep on the run until they get arrested or killed.

April 1974 saw the fall of a long lasting dictatorship. The young democracy developed in the midst of much social and political turmoil. The armed wing of a leftist group changed the future of one family - the father disappears without trace, the mother denies their past, and the son grows up with unanswered questions. As a young man, Pedro is determined to reach for answers, aided by his apparently batty grandmother. Collecting clues and meeting people who would rather prefer to remain forgotten. His inner journey leads him Portugal to Spanish through the deserted roads of Alentejo. Pedro will find himself, but there is a price to pay.

In 1971, António Lobo Antunes' life is brutally interrupted when he is drafted into the Portuguese Army to serve as a doctor in one of the worst zones of the Colonial War – the East of Angola. Away from everything dear he writes letters to his wife while he is immersed in an increasingly violent setting. While he moves between several military posts he falls in love for Africa and matures politically. At his side, an entire generation struggles and despairs for the return home. In the uncertainty of war events, only the letters can make him survive.

Vicente goes to Egypt to cover some news for his newspaper, but then he decides to take the investigation further, along the Tropic of Cancer, further and further away (in time and space) from home, and his difficult love life. Therefore he revisits the lands explored 500 years before by the seafarers from his own people: Egypt, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, Laos, China... Eventually he must come back.

The Empire Hotel is a 30-year-old landmark in Macau's old quarter, inhabited by characters with their own stories and struggles. It is also Maria's home. One day, the burden of keeping lives together and the hotel standing falls on her shoulders. A young man who left Macau two decades ago returns, intent on revenge and reclaiming his mother's fortune – half the hotel. Inside the casino, Maria sings Fado and exotic dancers perform. It is against this illusory backdrop that the man lays eyes on Maria for the first time; they’re both mesmerized. The film cuts back and forth between film noir-style scenes of Macau’s past and present.

Portugal, 1944. In a country oppressed by a brutal dictatorship, there are those who resist and mobilize the people to fight for bread and freedom, even if it cost them prison, torture or their lives.

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?

A philosophy-obsessed serial rapist stalks a university campus in broad daylight.

In oPorto there is a club, Imperatriz, where everything is permitted. A moment in which all intersect in the dark night.

I think I'll remember you, everything, but I'm not sure.

Ariel de Bigault's work has been connected to the routes of the Lusophone World. In Fantasmas do Império we are guided by the saotomean actor Angelo Torres through some works of the Portuguese cinema that explored its colonial past. Some directors as Fernando Matos Silva, João Botelho or Margarida Cardoso help to understand imperialism, colonialism, and propaganda seen through the "family album" which is the Portuguese cinematic collective imaginary.

A character searches, in Macau, for a friend who lived there fifteen years before. Assisted by the letters written to him by his friend, he will reconstitute his past steps, trying to find him.

A reporter and a camera operator from a Macau TV channel embark on a journey to south of China.