A Poorly Told Story (2025)

The Russia House

Barley Scott Blair, a Lisbon-based editor of Russian literature who unexpectedly begins working for British intelligence, is commissioned to investigate the purposes of Dante, a dissident scientist trapped in the decaying Soviet Union that is crumbling under the new open-minded policies.

The Soft Skin

Pierre Lachenay is a well-known publisher and lecturer, married to Franca and father of Sabine. He starts a love affair with air hostess Nicole, which Pierre is hiding, but he cannot stay away from her.

After Everything

Besieged by writer’s block and the crushing breakup with Tessa, Hardin travels to Portugal in search of a woman he wronged in the past – and to find himself. Hoping to win back Tessa, he realizes he needs to change his ways before he can make the ultimate commitment.

Zus & Zo

In this Oscar-nominated comedy, three wacky sisters try to save their inheritance from their supposedly gay brother, who suddenly appears with a fiancé in tow. If he gets married, their father's will stipulates that he gets the family hotel in Portugal. So the sisters put aside their personal differences and set out to stop the wedding at all costs.

A Shot in the Dark

A baby is kidnapped in a Brazilian airport. Years later, the mother lives in Lisbon and works in a strip-tease bar so she can survive. When she is fired, she joins a gang of bank robbers...

The State I Am In

Clara and Hans are left-wing terrorists who have been sought by police for almost fifteen years. Their increasingly rebellious daughter Jeanne begins to pose a threat to their security when she falls in love with a boy she meets on the beach.

The Ninth Gate

A rare book dealer finds himself at the heart of a string of paranormal events when he is hired to find the last two copies of a text, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, capable of summoning the Devil.

Cockles and Muscles

Crustacés et coquillages is a fresh French comedy film with numerous surprise turnarounds and about the tolerance of a family of four. The family spend an idealistic summer vacation together where each of the family members gets involved in a new or old relationship.

Lisbon Story

Wim Wenders' homage to Lisbon and films. A sound engineer obtains a mysterious postcard from a friend who at the moment is filming a film in Lisbon. He sets out across Europe to find him and help him.

In the White City

Fed up with the sea, Paul, a Swiss mechanic working in the noisy bowels of a merchant ship, lands in Lisbon.

Ramiro

Ramiro is a bookstore owner in Lisbon and a poet in perpetual creative block. He lives, somewhat frustrated, somewhat conformed, between his shop and the tavern, accompanied by his dog, his faithful drinking companions and his neighbors: a pregnant teenager and her grandmother recovering from a stroke. He would gladly continue living this quiet and somewhat anachronistic routine if events worthy of a soap opera did not invade his bubble.

Blood Curse

An urban family inherits an old country house located in a small village. Upon their arrival they try to adapt to the new lifestyle, but they soon learn that the village is overshadowed by superstition and mysterious folklore. As they are plagued by strange events, they learn more about the history of their family, and slowly begin to believe by inheriting the house, they also inherited a curse.

Operation Portugal

Hakim, 35, a friendly neighborhood cop, must infiltrate the Portuguese community for the purpose of an investigation. But can one become Portuguese in three days? Especially when we know that Hakim is a walking disaster at undercover operations. His clumsiness and bad luck turn his many infiltrations into cataclysms. The case is clearly too big for him. Quickly trapped between his feelings and his mission, Hakim, who lives alone with his mother, will discover a community, but also a family.

Between Waves

Professional photographer Jamie's quantum physicist boyfriend Isaac has gone missing, and is presumed dead. Haunted by his disappearance while attempting to continue with life as normal, Jamie gets more and more wrapped up in figuring out exactly what happened, and is convinced that his disappearance has something to do with Isaac’s research into parallel dimensions. She continues to pursue him until she collides with a shattering revelation.

Take Care

Filomena lives alone in a rural village in the interior of Portugal and has just found out that she doesn't have much time left to live. Her granddaughter Laura, a young woman in her early twenties, raised by her, shows up out of nowhere at her house. They share memories of childhood and youth, up to the moment when the granddaughter left home to attend University in Lisbon. But something strange happens when the two have a heated argument about the possible return of Laura's mother to their lives. Is Filomena's illness playing tricks on her? Or is something else going on here?

Adventures of Don Juan

Spanish Lothario Don Juan, the legendary lover and adventurer returns to Spain following a scandal and comes to the aid of his queen, who is under threat from sinister forces.

A Song of Lisbon

Vasco is a medical student in Lisbon, supported by his rich aunts, whom he had falsely told he had already graduated. In fact, he devotes himself to a bohemian life, preferring the popular fairs and pretty women, especially Alice, a seamstress from the Castelinhos quarter, which rather upsets her ambitious father, tailor Caetano, who is familiar with Vasco's debts. After failing yet another final exam, he is surprised by his aunts' announcement that they will visit him in Lisbon to see his practice.

A Pinch of Portugal

When a celebrity chef walks off his show, prep cook Anna must step into the spotlight and make the show her own, with the help of her Aussie cameraman and Portuguese location scout.

Life Is Beautiful

Antonio is a retired aviator in an unnamed country ruled by a military junta which violently suppresses any free thought. He falls in love with a member of the resistance against the dictatorship. He is arrested but escapes with his love. The code word among the resisters is: ‘Life is Beautiful’.

Pereira Declares

Lisbon, 1938. Mr. Pereira is the editor of the culture section of an evening paper. Although fascism is on the rise in Europe, like in nearby civil war Spain or even inside Portugal itself in the form of Salazar's regime, Pereira only concerns himself with writing bios and translating French novels. Things change after he hires a young writer as his assistant, getting to know also his girlfriend – both opponents to the regime – and reluctantly helps them when they begin to get in trouble for subversive activities. Eventually, he's forced to take a stand...

Recollections of the Yellow House

Lisbon, 1989. A middle-aged poor man, tormented by an illness, lives in a cheap room in a family boarding house, in the old section of the city's waterfront.

The Last Run

A former mob getaway driver from Chicago has retired to a peaceful life in a Portuguese fishing village. He is asked to pull off one last job - to drive a dangerous crook and his girlfriend to France.

April Captains

Story of the 1974 coup that overthrew the right-wing Portuguese dictatorship--which continued the fascist policies of long-time dictator Antonio Salazar--and of two young army captains who were involved in it.

Our Beloved Month of August

In the heart of Portugal, amid the mountains, the month of August is abuzz with people and activity...

House of Ghosts

Professor Hermes conducts a research on fear, for which he passes contract with a patient to live a supposedly empty mansion. He's counting on his assistant Chico Mota to play a phantom, but soon comes about that there are phantoms (plural) in there.

The Lion from Estrela

Anastácio lives in Lisbon and is fanatic for Sporting CP, one of the city's football teams. When the team travels to face Porto, he follows it with the family, staying in house of his friend, Mr. Barata, pretending to be rich.

Until Tomorrow, Comrades

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 Courtyard of the Ballads

A portrait of the relations between neighbours in a Lisbon courtyard. A story made of small episodes of humour, friendship, rivalry, love.

O Costa d'África

Costa is travelling from Africa to London, and wishes very much to his nephew Amadeu, and see by himself how well he has been invested large sums of money he is been sending him. Amadeu 'borrows' for 24 hours a wife, a villa, a car, and a servant - for he has been lies to his uncle all the time. All goes well. But, Costa decides to prolong his stay for two weeks...

Die Screaming Marianne

After their parents divorce, one daughter lives with her mother in England while the other lives with her father in Portugal. After the untimely death of her mother, the one daughter stands to inherit a large sum of money and also a number of documents containing information that will incriminate her father, who was a crooked judge. While her father wants the documents, her sister wants the money and they will each stop at nothing, even murder, to get what they want.

Tabu

Lisbon, Portugal, 2010. Pilar, a pious woman devoted to social causes, maintains a peculiar relationship with her neighbor Aurora, a temperamental old woman obsessed with gambling who lives tormented by a mysterious past.

Storm Over Lisbon

A nightclub star helps trap an enemy agent on the trail of an American newsman.

No, or the Vain Glory of Command

Episodes from throughout the entire military history of Portugal are told through flashbacks as a conscripted student of history recounts them to his fellow soldiers while they march through an African colony in revolt during 1973.

Flucht aus Lissabon

After a failed Interpol operation, Tom Fährmann, human rights activist and escape agent, is tasked with finding Sofia Moreno, a whistleblower who has disappeared in Lisbon, and bringing her to a safe house on the Portuguese coast. When Fährmann realizes that Sofia's eight-year-old son Noa is in the hands of a hacker organization that the programmer wanted to fight with her filter program against fake news, his assignment turns into a rescue mission in which Fährmann can no longer trust anyone.

In Vanda's Room

An unflinching, fragmentary look at a handful of self-destructive, marginalized people, but taking as main focus the heroin-addicted Vanda Duarte.

Florbela

Shaken by a divorce in the 1920s, Portuguese poetess Florbela Espanca uses her writing to deal with her tumultuous relationship with men, eroticism and love.

I'd Rather Not Say

The day begins with an exchange of favours. An interview, a football game, cigarettes after cigarettes. Routine fragments of those who live in an isolated space which labels and conditions life choices.

Homo Verum

In 1894, Gabriel, an ambitious medicine graduate, spends his summer learning from the renowned Doctor Fidalgo in his isolated Mansion. Upon developing a lustful admiration for Fidalgo's wife, the young doctor is forced to break his morals.

The Portuguese Nun

A young French actress in Lisbon to shoot a movie is intrigued by a nun she sees kneeling in the chapel where she is filming.

Where to Invade Next

To understand firsthand what the United States of America can learn from other nations, Michael Moore playfully “invades” some to see what they have to offer.

IT´S CHICO TIME!

In 1974, Chico, a beloved host of a children’s TV show at the service of a repressive authoritarian regime, is forced to make the hardest decision of his life: murder a colleague live on air, or lose the approval of his powerful father. As the cameras roll, the program unravels into a surreal theatre of obedience, repression, and madness.

O Grande Elias

When Mr. Elias discovers that his aunt, who lives in Brazil, comes to visit him, he decides to temporarily occupy the house of a wealthy neighbor who's away so that she doesn't discover that he's not as rich as he told her.

The Girl Next Door

The story of how the conflicting relationship of Eduardo and vaudeville actress Isabel is affected by the passion he feels for their neighbor, Mariana, a young overprotected, and the unexpected visit of his uncle Plácido, a moral teacher.

o28

In Lisbon, a German married couple get aboard the legendary tramway no 28.

Lovers' Net

Daniel Gelin plays a soldier who is acquitted after committing a crime of passion. Relocating to Lisbon, and still feeling remorse over his impulsive killing of his faithless wife, Gelin manages to find love in the form of gorgeous widow Francoise Arnoul. Alas, it turns out that Arnoul has a sordid past of her own, leaving our hero sadder but wiser.

Fado, a Singer's Story

Ana Maria loves a modest guitar player, Júlio; when she herself in a 'retiro' (typical fado tavern), public and critics rend major applause. Fame brings about new friends, namely bohemian young who play and sing the fado with her, and not so young men but who rich and powerful enough to patronize her, promote her, and wish to become intimate with her. Júlio the guitarist feel betrayed, and he sets his mind to depart to the African colonies, to leave her forever. Knowing that he's going to embark, Ana Maria's heart between her first love, and the appeal of the rich and famous.

A Menina da Rádio

Geninha and Fortunato are couple who loves music. He's a good songwriter, she sings well. Despite this, their parents hate each other and do not seem willing to allow their marriage, nor the creation of a local radio for them.

Aldeia da Roupa Branca

Gracinda, a young laundry washer, lives with her godfather, "Uncle" Jacinto, and together they run a family business, doing the laundry for residents of Lisbon in their small village in the outskirts of that city (Canecas). Unfortunately, the business is not going very well, but that changes when Gracinda decides to go to the city to try to convince Chico, "Uncle" Jacinto's son, with whom she is in love, to return to the village and give new life to the business. The village is preparing for the annual festivities and a dispute erupts between "Uncle" Jacinto and his business rival , the widow Quiteria, when each of them invites different bands to play at the same time during the party and dances

Who Are You?

A historical classic drama in three acts, retold after an original prologue about dreams and nightmares of the thirteen-year-old noble heroine, Maria de Noronha.

Island of Loves

This film depicts the life of the 19th-century Portuguese writer Wenceslau De Moraes by means of nine ancient ballads from China. The writer married a Chinese woman after he left his wife and family to go live in Macao. Later, he moved to Japan where he fell in love with a Japanese woman, staying in Japan for the rest of his life. Mixed in with the career and loves of Moraes is the history of Portugal at home and in its colonies.

A Son Named Erasmus

Four friends in their 40s find out a deceased old flame of theirs had a child, conceived with one of them during an Erasmus (EU student exchange program) in Portugal 20 years earlier. They embark on a journey in search of the offspring, while waiting for the DNA results to find out which one is the father.

Black Cloaks

The great fadista, Amelia Rodrigues, made her screen debut in Capas Negras, which took its name from the black capes worn by the students in the university city of Coimbra, where the film is set. The action begins in a tavern where a group of former students are reminiscing about their time at the university. One of the students, Jose Duarte then breaks into song, performing an impromptu fado in the local Coimbra style. The tavern owner's niece, the aptly named Maria Lisboa promptly retaliates with a fado of the Lisbon variety. The melodramatic plot then centers on the frustrated romance between these two characters, and the soundtrack is essentially a musical duel between these two different styles of Portugal's national song.