The Baron 2011 ( 7)

A school inspector travels to the baron’s fiefdom to write a report on a heathen teacher. Having arrived, he is invited to stay with the baron, who makes predictions about women, horses and politics while the mysterious Idalina serves food and drink. The inspector becomes inextricably entangled in the baron’s world.

Rio Turvo 2007

A bizarre and tragic ballad of an impossible love between a nameless topographer and Leonor in a swamp soon to be destroyed by the forces of Man. She (Teresa Salgueiro, ethereal voice of Madredeus) is the “swamp-flower”, protégée of a Socratic Director (and his goat Plato). In a world without women, she is kept safe from the temptations of the flesh by her strict and grotesque Aunt. The sound-track entirely played by the workers (fado and bossa nova singers) reveals parallel narratives of suspicion and conspiracy that unfold to the pace of the unconscious leading to a confrontation between Man and River. Inspired by a hypnotic story by Branquinho da Fonseca (1905-1974).

Evening Star 2004

Maria Helena, 57 years old, lives in the small village of Lourel, on the outskirts of Lisbon. Her days are divided by the several chores imposed by household keeping: floor-washing, bathroom cleaning, doing the laundry. This is the story of a housewife who wished to fly faraway but didn’t, perhaps, as she puts it, because she was born “before time”. She goes through the daily routine with all she has left: memories and songs from another time, from a revolution (April, 1974), that fill in the soundtrack of her world and of her days.

The Gold Cross 2000