Pedro Hestnes

Katrin, a young German delinquent, is sent to Portugal as part of a programme of social re-integration. Taking her problems with her to the desert-like landscapes of the Alentejo, she meets Julia, also placed there by social services, with whom she makes a desultory acquaintance, and Pedro, who lives in the area, and who is as lost and out of sorts as she is. (cineuropa.org)

The film tells a story of Mariana, a depressing nurse working in Lisbon. She accompanies an immigrant worker in a comatose sleep on his trip to home. After she arrives in Cape Verde, she encounters the strange and enigmatic world. The devoted Portuguese nurse took a journey only to find herself lost in abstract drama. There she finds that "she brought a living man among the dead." (Wikipedia)

Using sparse dialogue and stunningly rich black-and-white images, Costa follows two young brothers and a teacher on the run from the boys' malevolent uncle and his gang of vicious criminals.

Rita is an 18-year-old Portuguese teen who is upset when her Parisian cousin Ann comes to visit. The two teenage girls quarrel with each other, and Rita and her boyfriend Antonio argue. Soon, Ann and Antonio fall in love, and the jealous Rita tries to break up the happy couple, and Antonio takes her back when Ann finally returns to Portugal.

A prelude announces the intent to tell nine stories, all marked with letters of alphabet, with the subsequent permutations of these stories. Not only the plotlines get mutated and re-ordered, so do the actors, hats, beards, accents, manners - whatever may identify a character ceases to be such an identifier. The plot itself becomes a mystery, since there are parallel searches for the treasure, the map of treasure, which as we learn is a treasure in itself, a coin, a kidnapped father etc.

Made in the genre of American road films, Docteur Chance does homage to one of the creators of punk ideology, Joe Strummer, who plays the pilot Vince Taylor. Planes, cars and rock'n'roll as creations of the 20th century, are frequent images in Ossang's films. (KG)

Xavier spent his childhood in an orphanage, where he was left by his mother, until finally being adopted as a teenager. Just when his life seemed to be getting on the right track, a serious event will make Xavier suddenly stray from everyone who knows him.

Miguel is a successful economist until his father's death plunges him into a strange obscure world of fears, strange sounds and psychological isolation. He quits his job, drifts away from his wife and initiates a process of physical disintegration. (imdb)

A dramatic eight hour period on a winter's day in Lisbon.