Luís Araújo

A pagan tradition in a village in the countryside of Portugal leaves painful traces in a group of young teenagers. 25 years later, when they meet again, the past resurfaces and tragedy sets in.

Pavese considered Dialogues with Leucò his best work. Eloquent and at the same time sententious and fragile, but implausible among humanized gods, demigods, heroes, and other pagan figures of Greek mythology, who question, through the imaginary of myths, the society of contemporary man. Out of a time and a certain space, and thus, and like all myths, always current.

It's a summer weekend in a country house near Sintra, in Portugal. Fourteen-year-old Nicolau is spending a couple of days with his older brother Simão and his friends, all of them in their late twenties. Everyone is drawn to the beautiful and quiet Maria do Mar, but Nicolau will see his life the most deeply shaken by her. Between homework and tree-climbing, stories about a deceased philandering grandfather and the origins of the tortellini's shape, a friend in a costume nursing a broken heart and seduction games, Nicolau observes this group of young adults.

In dystopic times, after a law that prohibits laughter was approved, people live in an environment of fear and mistrust. The freedom to express any kind of joy in public no longer exists. As part of the resistance, a group of actors and scriptwriters decide to create a clandestine movement allowing people to laugh in secret. Everything else is noise.

Emilia is a 17 year old who just finished high school and now works at the local gas station. She has the dream of becoming a professional ballerina, but has never had the courage to leave everything and try. One day she finally gets the chance to audition for the last ballet company still standing in Portugal. She will have to decide whether she should try and risk failing miserably or carry on with her comfortable life, without purpose.