Pedro Ramalhete

Fernando Pessoa, one of the greatest writers in Portuguese, created an immense parallel world and several heteronyms so as to endure the loneliness of genius. José Saramago, 1998 Nobel Laureate in Literature, has a heteronym, Ricardo Reis, return to Portugal after a 16-year exile in Brazil. 1936 is a perilous year with Mussolini’s fascism, Hitler’s Nazism, Spain’s Civil War and Salazar’s New State in Portugal. And Fernando Pessoa meets his creation, Reis. Two women, Lídia and Marcenda, are Reis’ carnal and impossible passions. “Life and Death as one” allows for literature and cinema.

'The Last Party' is a young romantic comedy that follows a group of four friends at their high school graduation party. Each protagonist with their love dilemma to solve throughout the night, all connected by the issues of this generation. It's their last night as teenagers. The last night with friends before being separated by different colleges. The last night before the rest of their lives.

Marta and Jaime are a childless couple who have opted for the peace and quiet of the countryside. Without any surprise, they take in a neighboring child for a few days. However, a nocturnal visit from a strange animal shakes the couple’s logical reasoning about the simple things in life. Could the child have something to do with that terrifying presence? One of the effects of fear is to disturb the senses, making things seem different from what they are, and so, little by little, a fantastic order is established, triggering the most irrational and violent reactions in them. In the end, nothing will be the same for them again.

A reorganization within a crime syndicate.

One day they meet randomly on the street: João is unemployed, Clara works in the film industry as a production assistant. They were colleagues at film school. She invites him to participate in this film she’s working on. “Eternal Flame” it’s a melancholic comedy about the dynamics of a film crew and the growing pains of a young slacker. A homage to the family of Portuguese cinema and cinema itself

Dreaming of great adventures and of standing up for his homeland, a young Portuguese man enlists in the army during World War I and is sent to the front line in Mozambique, Africa. Left behind by his platoon, he sets out on a grueling trek across the mystic Makua native land, walking for over a thousand kilometers, in search of his dream.

Gonçalo and his friends set off on a mission to his deceased grandfather’s house, in the north of Portugal. There, the memories of the past open up new perspectives into the future.

It’s summer, a boy and his friends go to the river. On the ride there, a story is told about a man and his pet snake that tried to eat him. The boy falls from a tree trunk and gets hurt. A girl follows him. A couple kiss each other, another boy explores the woods and a third one just lays by a tree eating a peach. In four chapters, the heat and the humidity of the forest unravel desires among them.

The revolutionary Álvaro Cunhal, symbol of Portuguese communism and political giant of the 20th century. He is nothing less than a larger-than-life figure, now examined by João Botelho’s camera, in a detective-minded film, in which the early years of the life of the historic leader of the Portuguese Communist Party are explored. In between, excerpts from his own books are staged for the spectator.

Manel is twenty years old, lives on Avenida Almirante Reis and idealizes love inspired by the relationship of his parents. Out of compassion, he hands over his double mattress to Nicolau and his girlfriend, who returned to Lisbon. Manel is alone with the mattress that he exchanged with his friends and on his way back home when he invades a film set, with a team entirely composed by girls. One of them, Rita, a beautiful production intern who helps with the mattress.

In the hot month of August, Alice and her siblings go to their grandmother’s summer house. As the days go by, the house becomes a hive of slow straying bodies, as Alice becomes more and more engrained in her grandmother’s colonial past.

He comes home in tears. She cooks dinner disregarding the distance that has permeated their existence. But they aren’t ready to give up on trying to bridge it. Perhaps they can meet halfway.

An early death by drowning leads to different ways of reacting among members of a group of friends. While some revolt, others move away from reality, looking for comfort in a virtual world.