The Italian Writer

Eight very different couples deal with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London.

In the Holy Land, the Roman occupation has produced a cauldron of oppression, anxiety and excessive taxes levied upon the Jewish people. Fearing the wrath of Roman governor Pontius Pilate , Jewish high priest Caiaphas tries to keep control of his people. That control is threatened when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, performing miracles and spreading messages of love and hope. Those who fear that Jesus will inspire a revolution decide that he must die.

Raimund Gregorius, having saved a beautiful Portuguese woman from leaping to her death, stumbles upon a mesmerizing book by a Portuguese author, which compels him to suddenly abandon the boring life he has led for years and to embark on an enthralling adventure. In search of the author, Gregorius acts as detective, pulling together pieces of a puzzle that involves political and emotional intrigue and the highest possible stakes. His voyage is one that transcends time and space, delving into the realms of history, medicine and love, all in search of true meaning to his life.

In 1917, outside the parish of Fátima, Portugal, a 10-year-old girl and her two younger cousins witness multiple visitations of the Virgin Mary, who tells them that only prayer and suffering will bring an end to World War I. As secularist government officials and Church leaders try to force the children to recant their story, word of the sighting spreads across the country, inspiring religious pilgrims to flock to the site in hopes of witnessing a miracle..

Fourteen years after the events of the original film, a series of encounters between people in Britain reminds us that in these different times Love, actually exists.

Kennedy Blaine, a Californian girl, inherits a ranch in the small town of Valentine in Nebraska. Before she sells the property, she decides to spend the summer in her house and learn more about her family.

After discovering her fiancé's betrayal, Yasemin leaves everything behind and flees to Lisbon, where she unexpectedly finds herself sharing her rented home with its Portuguese owner, José. What starts as a clash between polar opposites gradually turns into a journey that reshapes both of their lives.

In the gardens of a large village house belonging to a reclusive architect, a hand is found. In a sign placed at the gates of the property, the architect annouces he will return it to whoever proves to be the owner.

Before Dawn charts the years of exile in the life of famous Jewish Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, his inner struggle for the "right attitude" towards the events in war torn Europe and his search for a new home.

A disturbing film about the Portuguese underworld of prostitution.

A young priest commits a crime when he falls in love with a beautiful and troubled woman. Based on O Crime do Padre Amaro ("The Crime of Father Amaro"), a novel by the 19th-century Portuguese writer José Maria de Eça de Queiroz. It was first published in 1875 to great controversy.

Roberta is a renowned classical pianist battling a chronic kidney disease. However, an unexpected encounter with Father José will forever change her life.

A love story between a failed musician and a girl in a dinosaur costume.

A Portuguese soldier, who got stranded from his team during the La Lys battle, struggles by himself through dozens of German offensives so he can guarantee the safety of his companions.

Spino, a pathologist, receives an unidentified body which looks familiar to him... himself, 30 years younger.

Peter McShade is a hitman. A job goes wrong when he kills the nephew of a Mafia Boss in Morocco.

In a distant past, Léon and Elvira Berthelini, itinerant artists, make their living hopping from town to town. In Covarronca, harassed by the Police Commissioner, they are forced to spend the night out in the open. That’s when they meet Stubbs, a young Cambridge student, with whom they find shelter in the home of a painter at odds with his wife. In return for the hospitality, they remind their hosts that the love of art resolves the art of love. Meanwhile, an unusual curse sends them on absurd journeys into the 21st century, where the future of social security and of a rock band are at stake.

This is the story of a young Mozambican footballer called Eusébio, a gifted athlete destined to great achievements, coveted by rival clubs, Sporting and Benfica, which ends up hiring him. Blackmail, kidnapping attempts, ministers involved, press hysteria and huge money offers make the story of this football transfer into a saga evolving between the two continents. It ends up when the legend begins: with Eusébio’s first match at the Benfica Stadium.

Alice is 20 years old and has been living in confinement since she was born, when she was diagnosed with a severe combined immunodeficient disease. Her immune system is very weak, so the only solution to keep herself alive is to be in a safe and protected environment: her home. Fred (20) is his best and only friend and it is through her that Alice lives.

In the outskirts of London, Portuguese couple and parents of three, Bela and Jota, struggle to make ends meet. When a misunderstanding arises at school with their deaf daughter, the British social services grow concerned for the safety of their children. The film portrays the tireless battle of these immigrant parents against the law to keep their family together.

In 1970, a man is tortured and murdered by the regime's secret police. Now nearly 40 years later, his friend, who had also been tortured, recognizes the man he deems responsible for the murder of his friend. Along with three old friends and the victim's daughter, they kidnap the man and take him to an isolated house. Once there, the concepts of justice and revenge begin to mix dangerously in a private trial with irreversible consequences.

On April 25, 1974, a man walked alone in Largo do Carmo. He knocked on the GNR military barracks door and entered, unarmed and without any escorts. Inside, the Government’s chief, Marcelo Caetano, waited, surrounded by the military and the people. The man who stared at him that afternoon and demanded surrender, guaranteeing his safety, had just led Santarém’s Artillery 1 regiment in taking the capital. Without firing a single shot, he managed to overthrow a regime that was over 48 years old. That was the last step to take and he took it, without hesitation, becoming the unavoidable figure of the day that marked the beginning of democracy in Portugal

It is inspired by the true story of the girls and women of a Ukrainian family forced to find rescue from the war. Although... War can never truly be escaped.

The shady side of an Italian textile trade in northern Germany is the subject of this slow-paced but atmospheric drama featuring Alberto Sordi as Totonno, a low-level, petty criminal anxious to move up a somewhat crooked ladder. Rising to the rank of the "dons" -- Don Raffaele (Carmine Ippolito) or Don Gennaro (Pasquale Cenammo) -- is not an easy task, as Totonno is about to find out. In the meantime, Paula (Belinda Lee) provides a romantic distraction, and another would-be entrepreneur opts for the straight and narrow. This uneven feature offers some colorful performances but the sum is less convincing than its parts.

Mário Gonçalves, a high school teacher threatened with death due to cancer, spends the last days of his life in the village where he was born, in the heart of Serra da Estrela. There, he expresses his talent as a painter in the intimate decoration of an abandoned chapel. This is also the twilight hour of rebellious memories: love and precariousness, choices and contingency, perennial dissatisfaction...

Struggling against the crisis in Portugal, a mother doubles up jobs to pay the bills since her husband is unemployed. Their teenage daughter tries to keep living everyday life even if the money is running short, which makes everything uneasy. Escaping from their common reality, they slowly become strangers to one another, as the tension grows in silence and in guilt.

Alice is a young hearing-impaired girl who, after a supposed visitation from the Virgin Mary, is inexplicably able to hear, speak and heal the sick. As word spreads and people from near and far flock to witness her miracles, a disgraced journalist hoping to revive his career visits the small New England town to investigate. When terrifying events begin to happen all around, he starts to question if these phenomena are the works of the Virgin Mary or something much more sinister.

Danny Krueger is a twenty-year old drag racer who plays by his own rules. After winning a scholarship to the prestigious Fast Lane Racing Academy, Danny finds himself competing against some of the fiercest young drivers in the world. Tension soars on and off the track, and a terrible incident leaves Danny without a racing partner. Facing dismissal from the academy, Danny is forced to team up with an old rival. The pair must learn to set aside their differences as they vie for rookie spots on a professional racing team.

Danny Krueger is a rebellious young street racer on a collision course with trouble. After an accident at an illegal race, he's sent to a small town to live with his estranged father, a washed up NASCAR racer. When Danny decides to enter the NHRA High School Drags, he's forced to seek his father's help in taking down the local hotshot.

In the near future, the Government aims to replace judges with Artificial Intelligence software, pledging to effectively automate and depoliticize the justice system. Carmen Costa, a distinguished judge, has been invited to assess this new procedure. However, when the software’s creator is found dead, she realizes her life is in danger and that she will have to fight the powerful interests that are at play in the highest echelons of the State.

16-year-old Maria is forced into Serra D'Aires convent, secretly run by Satanists.

Antonio is 18 years old and is profoundly deaf. He wants to study cinema outside Portugal and become a director. And make movies for everyone, deaf and listeners. This is your dream that, like all dreams, has a price: to question himself and the community to which he belongs. At the same time, she lives her first love with Irina, a deaf young woman who doesn't understand why he wants to leave school and his country so much. For the first time in his life, Anthony's world is falling apart. But it may be worth losing the world to conquer the universe where deaf and hearing listen in the same gesture.

A reality show on an inhabited island where eight contestants must fight for their survival becomes more than it appears to be. Solum is not just a game -- it's a test, a selection process, and a mirror that confronts the truth of Nature, with the falsehoods of the Human Race.

Carica is only seven years old and wants a bicycle for Christmas. But his family has no money and offers him a book. The grandfather tells him the story of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. On the first day of rain and sun, Carica embarks on adventure.

Summer of 1870. Two writers, Eça de Queiroz and Ramalho Ortigão, decide to write a four-handed whodunit for the daily "Diário de Notícias". Could it be that the story they wrote as fiction is based on a real case? This question fuels the conflict between the two writers and drives them to a nearly fatal duel. Lisbon is in commotion. One crime follows another in a story in which love is stronger than tradition. Everything happens at frenzied pace, as in a game.

The story revolves around Anastácio, a supporter of Leões de Alcochete and Mr. Barata, a supporter of Inferno Futebol Clube. One day, the two teams face each other. Which team will win?

A theatre having national as part of its name, at the top of a square, reflecting a country’s history. But which one? This is a voyage through the various narratives about D. Maria II National Theatre, forged through the intentions of the several regimes that intended to convey their own ideologies within the theatre’s mission. This is also the story of those who fought against it, opposed the institution and became part of it. How can one become heir of these stories, even if never having set foot inside.

Leonel is a pianist, nostalgic of sweet melodies, while his son is the (real-life) leader of Os Gatos Pretos (black cats), a twist musical group. The conflict is eventu ally solved when Leonel's daughter, Cilinha, starts dating Raúl, a well-off young man, who promote a new dancing club, the Lisboa Antiga e Moderna, where old new music get even shares.

Recognizing the undeniable role of Filipe La Féria in the history of Portuguese theater, this documentary seeks to explore the thinking that drives creation and unveil the philosophy hidden behind the stage.