Historias Breves I: Downhill

Anaktana tells the story of a mute boy who can communicate with nature. When a palm oil company faces the mysterious disappearance of its workers in the forest, they force his mother to make him help them. Along with her, Paulus (the foreman), and two workers, they journey deep into the woods. There, they uncover dark secrets about human greed and nature’s vengeance.

Vatertag

When Ella makes a strange discovery about the lifestyle choices of her internet date, the recently bereaved Mark, she must choose whether to stay in her own comfort zone or take part in his unconventional grieving process. Twitching is irreverent, playful and subversive in its exploration of gendered narratives, relationship boundaries and grief.

This film is the pearl of his pioneer work in Madeira Island and captures the most of his methodology: good stories taking the most of Madeira's natural scenery, and provoking the audience with some ironic and "double-sense" scenes. The film tells the story of an English girl travelling with her father, a botanic, and a guide from madeira in the deep mountains of the island. The girl has some mental disturbs and is always scaring about an attack from the native man, appearing as a half-man/half-monster.

Diogo Alves is a Spanish fugitive that comes to the Portuguese capital terrorizing the inhabitants by his cut-throat methods against rich and poor people alike. He attacks the women launderers on the Lisbon Aqueduct and throws the bodies over the high wall, and assaults homes with his large band of criminals. Eventually arrested, he, his female companion and his henchmen are condemned to death by the court.

A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.

A hobo takes revenge to a miller who didn't give him something to eat.

Before Words

A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

When a young woman investigates her town's Nazi past, the community turns against her.

Born under unusual circumstances, Benjamin Button springs into being as an elderly man in a New Orleans nursing home and ages in reverse. Twelve years after his birth, he meets Daisy, a child who flits in and out of his life as she grows up to be a dancer. Though he has all sorts of unusual adventures over the course of his life, it is his relationship with Daisy, and the hope that they will come together at the right time, that drives Benjamin forward.

After returning back to her childhood home, Fern, a Thai-American finds herself exploring fragments of her Vietnam war veteran father’s memories through her fungi infested house. All while her boyfriend, Thee and their dysfunctional relationship enters the same maze her parents were once in.

John J. is a seasoned hit man sent on a job to Argentina. When the General he's sent to kill delays his return to the country, John passes the time with Manuela, a beautiful dancer who becomes his teacher and guide into Argentina's sensual world of the tango.

Three men hammer on an anvil and pass a bottle of beer around. Notable for being the first film in which a scene is being acted out.

Tita is passionately in love with Pedro, but her controlling mother forbids her from marrying him. When Pedro marries her sister, Tita throws herself into her cooking and discovers she can transfer her emotions through the food she prepares, infecting all who eat it with her intense heartbreak.

A man entranced by his dreams and imagination is lovestruck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world.

The story of two men and a mysterious family, who repeat the same day forever in order to save the life of one of its daughters.

Renowned oceanographer Steve Zissou has sworn vengeance upon the rare shark that devoured a member of his crew. In addition to his regular team, he is joined on his boat by Ned, a man who believes Zissou to be his father, and Jane, a journalist pregnant by a married man. They travel the sea, all too often running into pirates and, perhaps more traumatically, various figures from Zissou's past, including his estranged wife, Eleanor.

Jean-Claude Delsart, a 50 years-old bailiff, with his worn-out smile and heart, abandoned a long time ago the idea that life could give him pleasures. Until the day, he dares to push the doors of a tango lesson...

A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.