Synopsis:

This is the delightful story of a man, Fúsi, who leads a monotonous and solitary life and divides his time between his work and his mother at home. And then he meets Sjöfn, a girl who pushes him outside the protection of his routines. Virgin Mountain is narrated in a simple yet masterful way. Visually it connects with other Icelandic movies (Rams, Hross í oss, Hjartasteinn) that make use of descriptive shots and open frames of nature to underline the smallness of the human condition. The film has an urban setting, and the visual treatment combine beautiful contrasts between inside and outside shots. It is precisely by avoiding the usual setting of a vast and severe Nature, that the film better captures the social problem of isolation. The director Dagur Kári proposes to cure the diagnosed disease: the necessity to break his island condition and become permeated by the strange, the alien (“the other”). This act of becoming permeated by the alien will be one of the clearest symptoms of a change in Fúsi’s attitude towards life. This film is a gift everybody should watch to be infected by the tenderness and understanding that emanate from its main character.

2015: Festival de Tribeca: Melhor filme, actor (Jónsson) e guião

2015: Festival de Valladolid - Seminci: Melhor actor (Jónsson)

2015: Festival de Berlim – Selecção Oficial

Synopsis:

Based on a story by the Russian author Mikhail Lermontov, Ashik Kerib has the texture of an ancient, oft-told bed time story. Kerib, a poor but kind-hearted man is in love with Magul-Megeri, beautiful daughter of a local rich man. The feeling is mutual, but Magul-Megeri’s father would rather she married Kurshudbek, a brutish rich man. Ashik Kerib makes a deal: he’ll wander the world for 7 years hoping to accumulate enough money to afford the wedding. The film uses a frontal approach which avoids depth. Thus, it creates the effect of the iconographic paintings of the Islamic miniatures, presenting the characters as if they were masks. These can be seen in the dedicated Parajanov museum in Yerevan, in the Armenian Republic. Godard said:”In the temple of cinema, there are images, light and reality. Sergei Parajanov was the master of that temple”. The film about the troubadour Kerib is a sensual delight and an encounter with the past. It presents the rites of the Zaherí culture through profane and sacred objects, prodigiously accompanied by the saz or kopuz, a string musical instrument. The second Parajanov film to be accompanied live music in the Cineclube of Tavira.

“Los Ninõs Muertos” will reinterpret and perform live the film soundtrack. This will be the second Parajanov movie to be accompanied live by “Los Ninõs Muertos” at Tavira's Cineclube.

1988: Prémios do Cinema Europeu: Melhor direcção de arte. 2 Nomeações    

Synopsis:

Endless poetry is the second part of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s autobiographical trilogy. The 86 year-old psychomagician and director surprises us again with this film, as funny as it is disconcerting. The film, starring Jodorowsky’s sons, is set in the period of the director´s life when he left home to submerge himself in the bohemian life of Santiago de Chile, up until he moved to Paris in the 50’s.

In this film we feel a reclaimed urge to exorcize the past. It´s a true act of psychomagic, with explicit references to Major Arcana such as The Star or The Hanged Man. This method, developed by Jodorowsky himself, is based on the premise that the unconscious doesn’t distinguish between symbolic actions and true facts, so it can be used to heal certain psychological traumas.

Thanks to the magic of cinema, Jodorowsky returns to the past to heal wounds, embracing his father and receiving his forgiveness, something that in real life never happened.

The Cannes Film Festival audience praised with a standing ovation of more than 10 minutes!

Synopsis:

Socio-political gem and the most successful film in The Festival of Gijon 2016, Glory is a sarcastic portrait and criticism of the Bulgarian society which shows two very different sides of the country. This is the second film of the Bulgarian Kristina Gozeva and Petar Valchanov, part of their “newspaper-clippings trilogy”, after the first film The Lesson (Urok). Social cinema, using a humorous way to describe how top politicians are ready to do whatever it takes to keep their positions, no matter what. Don’t miss it!

2016: Festival de Locarno: Competição Internacional

2016: Festival de Gijón: Melhor filme, guião e prémio FIPRESCI

Synopsis:

After winning his second Oscar for Best Foreign Film this year, Asghar Fahardi didn’t attend the ceremony as a protest against Trump’s discriminatory laws. Working again with two of his favourite actors, Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidousti, the Iranian filmmaker tells the sentimental relationship of a couple of theatre actors, Emad and Rana. Their peaceful and stable marriage will be shaken when they’re forced to move house. The story develops in parallel to the actors staging of Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman (1949). The parallelism between Miller’s and Fahardi’s works rests on the pace of an excellent script and the dramatic crescendo of both storylines that develop simultaneously. With great delicacy, Fahardi exposes in his brilliant denouement some ethical questions about guilt, shame for other people’s opinions, pride, thirst for revenge, forgiveness, but also about social prejudices. The Salesman questions the sexist education in Iranian society which applies to all societies. A story full of layers, with humane characters – with faults and virtues- which results in an extremely well told film.

2016: Prémios Óscar: Melhor filme de língua não inglesa

2016: Globos de Ouro: Nomeado melhor filme de língua não inglesa

2016: Festival de Cannes: Melhor actor (Shahab Hosseini) e guião

2016: National Board of Review (NBR): Melhor filme de língua não inglesa

2016: Critics Choice Awards: Nomeado melhor filme de língua não inglesa

2016: Festival Internacional de Valladolid - Seminci: Secção oficial

2016: Satellite Awards: Melhor filme de língua não inglesa

Synopsis:

The High Sun, A Romeo and Juliet romance set against the backdrop of the Yugoslav Wars, is steered by an undiluted and pure passion. It is the emotional that determines all actions and outcomes. A passion which sweeps away all of the characters, leaving nothing in it's wake, not even a refuge to rebuild their lives. Winner of the Un Certain Regard jury prize in the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, The High Sun unveils, in three different narratives, the more intimate aspects of the effects of the war. Matanič, with these three stories, which in a sense replicate each other, wishes to convey to Us the fatal cycle of repetition that the characters are trapped in; the reappearance of hatred, of which Nature (the lake) and the houses of both villages are witnesses to. Nevertheless, it is the responsibility of fiction that the director calls on in order to write the ending to this infernal cycle: opening the door and finding a means to escape.

2015: Festival de Cannes: Prémio especial do Júri, Un Certain Regard

2015: Satellite Awards: Nomeado melhor filme de língua não inglesa

2016: Prémios do Cinema Europeu: Nomeado prémio do público

Synopsis:

The painter Paula Rego reveals herself for the first time in this film, surprising her own son, the director Nick Willing. The 80 year old Rego decided to tell her story and her secrets to her youngest son. The result is a documentary packed with surprises. Willing worked without a script, letting his mother´s life guide the documentary, and combining the family archive of photographs and films with interviews that go through 60 years of his mother´s life. Her pastel and oil paintings and charcoal drawings are a glimpse of an intimate world full of demons. As a result of this revealing documentary, new paintings from her “blue period”, a very depressive time in the artist´s life, came to light. Paula Rego who was the first artist in residence at the British National Gallery, has a public museum exclusively dedicated to her work and a Damehood from the Queen. The art critic Robert Hughes once said that Rego is "the best painter of women's experience alive". Those who don´t know Paula Rego now have an excellent opportunity to do so, and those who already know her will discover new stories and secrets.

Synopsis:

From her own experience and memories, marked by the recent loss of her mother and her husband Lou Reed, the director Laurie Anderson draws a small reflection on life, love and death. Created by Laurie Anderson, one of the most recognized American artists, this is a film-essay on life, death and language that results in a close and personal reflection on loss. Narrated with her own voice, childhood stories, political and philosophical theories are mixed with some of her most intimate experiences, such as the relationship with Lolabelle, her beloved rat terrier dog, her mother's death - which left her with some ambivalent feelings - and the tragic death of Lou Reed, her long term partner, who died 27th October 2013. Although there is no direct connection to Bulgakov´s novel, of the same name, both works share a great affection towards humans and dogs. A sensitive and poetic film not to be missed!

2015: Festival de Veneza: Secção oficial longas-metragens a concurso

2015: Prémios Independent Spirit: Nomeado melhor documentário

2015: Prémios Gotham: Nomeado melhor documentário

Synopsis:

Two new interpretations of David lynch have appeared in recent times, the book The Man from Another Place by Dennis Lim, and the documentary David Lynch- The Art Life by Nguyen, Rick Barnes and Olivia Neergaard-Holm. These two works aim to decipher one of the most influential and elusive creators of our time by means of being overtly simple and transparent. In spite of his obscure and intricate imaginary universe, Lynch himself is a modest, calm and quiet person. A Lynch who meditates. A Zen Lynch. The documentary David Lynch- The Art Life doesn´t talk about cinema. In the eyes of Nguyen, Barnes and Neergaard-Hold, Lynch is, above all things, an artist. Their work doesn´t try to dissect the content of Lynch´s films: it captures instead the essence of Lynch as an artist and painter, as well as his everyday life and the clarity of his childhood memories. The documentary makers choose to show him in his studio with his paintings, a peculiar combination of post-expressionism and Art Brut. Lynch once heard the wind in one of his paintings and decided to take a cinematographic detour. His films are sort of trances and, as Lynch himself does in his movies, the documentary directors let the viewers make their own connections. After the documentary some short films by Lynch will be shown.

“I´ll see you in 25 years”, whispered Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks’ last episode. That promise has come true. This year is the 25th anniversary of the first release of Twin Peaks, and the sequel’s premiere certainly created a buzz in Cannes last May.

Synopsis:

Alain Guiraudie is one of the most alternative French filmakers in contemporary cinema. This is a road movie, a character in search of an inner transformation, a film that moves between dreams and reality, between adventure and the everyday routine, between comedy and drama. Guiraudie says that Staying Vertical has a clear political position, that of defending life outside the big metropolis: "There is life beyond the big cities". The filmmaker denounces that, from the 80´s onwards, magazines, tv and cinema have given the impression that poor people or farmers have no right to sexuality, not to mention homosexuality. Leo, a young scriptwriter fascinated by wolves, is trying to write a script when he meets Marie, and he ends up wandering around the French interior with their baby, getting past a series of unexpected encounters and doing whatever it takes to remain steadfast. Alain Guiraudie, with a gift in making the scabrous look natural, explores the human complexities and (homo and heterosexual) impulses, balancing naturalism and the oneiric with a lucid sense of humour. Giraudie maintains this is his queerest film to date. Giraudie maintains this is his “queerest” film to date.

2016: Prémios César: Nomeado melhor actor revelação (Damien Bonnard)

2016: Festival de Sevilha: Melhor director

2016: Festival de Cannes: Secção oficial longas-metragens a concurso

Synopsis:

Heartstone is basically a film about friendship. It also deals with the discovery of sexuality and the often disconcerting discovery of sexual identity. The beauty of the magnificent Icelandic landscapes doesn´t diminish or hide the violence, loneliness and apathy in an isolated fishing village. Absent parents who don´t know their children. Children who step into adulthood by copying patterns of violence. But in spite of this hostile environment, two boys fight for their friendship. The movie fits perfectly in the tradition of coming-of-age films, those focusing on the end of childhood and the transition to adulthood (a perfect example of this would be The 400 Blows by François Truffaut, a director who will be present in the Festival with his work Farenheit 451). Heartstone is a film full of purity and honesty.

2016: Festival internacional de cinema de Chicago: Melhor filme, nomeado para competição de novos realizadores

2016: Festival de cinema europeu de Sevilha: Prémio Ocaña

2016: Festival de cinema de Veneza: Leão Queer

2017: Festival internacional de cinema de Dallas: Prémio especial do júri, nomeado para grande prémio do júri

Synopsis:

Park Chan-wook has a natural gift to create hypnotic and appealing images at the service of an enigmatic and captivating narration. The film maker demonstrates once again his exquisite sensitivity and his absolute control of the camera with a mind-blowing mise en escène.

It’s the story of a young Korean girl (Sookee) hired by a fake Count to work as a servant for a wealthy Japanese woman (Hideko). The Count wants Sookee to convince Hideko to marry him so that he can finally control her fortune. The only problem is that the heiress lives in a huge mansion under the influence of her tyrant uncle, a book lover and a sadomasochist.

The sexual scenes, portrayed by Park without taboos, are divided between those showing domination and those showing pleasure (taking us back to Marquis de Sade). Park is a master at creating ambient. With his elegant style, his crescendo of intrigue, the Korean keeps a Hitchcockian line perfected by Stoker. Undoubtedly one of the best films of the year. It has already been chosen as one of the best five foreign films by the National Board of Review.

2016: Festival de Cannes: Secção oficial longas-metragens a concurso

2016: National Board of Review (NBR): Melhores filmes estrangeiros do ano

2016: Festival de Sitges: Prémio do público

2016: Critics Choice Awards: Nomeado melhor filme de língua não inglesa

2016: Críticos de Los Angeles: Melhor filme estrangeiro e desenho de produção

2016: Satellite Awards: Nomeado melhor filme de língua não inglesa

Synopsis:

The unforgettable and hypnotic sound track by Ry Cooder plays beneath a relentless sun and something starts to move inside us. Winner of the Palm d’Or in 1984, this is nevertheless a timeless masterpiece. A deep journey into wounded hearts and life's uncertainties. Both Sam Shepard´s script and Robby Müller’s cinematography are extraordinary. A powerful interaction between the visual excess of the flashy neon colours and the emptiness of the desert. The characters are equally divided between two places: where they are and where they want to be. A beautiful and elegant film that unfolds patiently, in a sad and sensual tone, full of sober dialogues. It is a restored version, not to be missed.

1984: Cannes: Palma de Ouro, Prémio do Jurado Ecuménico, FIPRESCI

1984: Nomeado para Globo de Ouro: Melhor filme estrangeiro

1984: BAFTA: Melhor director. Nomeado filme, guião adaptado e música

1984: Prémios César: Nomeado melhor filme estrangeiro

1984: David di Donatello: Prémio René Clair. Nomeado melhor filme estrangeiro

1984: Prémios do Cinema Alemão: 2º melhor filme