Joana Brandão

Across several generations, groups of young Portuguese people navigate school life and summer holidays while dealing with friendships, first loves, rivalries, family conflicts and decisions that shape their future. Each season introduces new protagonists, schools and challenges, exploring themes related to adolescence, identity, responsibility and belonging. Sport, music, dance and other forms of expression accompany their journeys of growing up, marked by dreams, choices and ever-changing relationships.

With Algarve and South Africa as main stages, Paixão tells the story of a love that was destroyed by a lie. This is the story of a man determined to fight for justice and to recover ten years of his life and an unshakable love that resists time and all threats.

An unlikely love with a happy ending... At age 40, Miguel is at the top of his career as a plastic surgeon, having reached the fame and fortune he worked so hard for. He’s a hopeless bachelor, never committing to any real relationship. This is not just by choice, his situation is a result of never having met his parents and being raised in a children’s home. But, overnight, a simple phone call will change his life entirely, making him recall a point in his life that he’d rather forget. His best friend from the institution was just killed in a car crash along with his wife, but left written instructions behind stating that, if something should happen to him, Miguel should be given custody of his three children, 12-year-old Simão, 8-year-old Jaime and 6-year-old Beatriz. Initially, Miguel will try to dismiss himself from any responsibility but, after meeting the kids, he realizes that he has no choice but to bring them home.

A story of love and revenge of a woman who, as an adult, returns to the place where she was raped and where she will be surprised with her ability to overcome.

A historical fiction series that, from the biographies and cultural and civic intervention of the poet Natalia Correia, the editor Snu Abecassis and the journalist Vera Lagoa (pseudonym of Maria Armanda Falcão), recalls the last years of the Estado Novo (Second Republic) - 1961 to 1973 - from the beginning of the colonial War to the eve of the April Revolution.

A family by force... Paulo and Susana have been together for a few years now and decide to take the next step in their relationship by moving in together. But, as they're signing the deed to the house, her father, who was supposed to bring the check, ends up delivering the bad news that there is no money for the house, thus ending this young couple’s dream. However, Artur doesn’t want to come off as a bad parent, so he offers his attic to them so that they can start their life together. So, Paulo’s dream turns into an absolute nightmare, as their life as a couple is, in fact, shared with seven other people who are all very different from them and will start controlling their every move in a permanently tense environment. The Mata family, as it turns out, is all insane, the only exception being Susana. And even her will have a hard time convincing the rest of the family to accept and welcome their new member.

Raul Vasconcelos and Helena Brito founded a partnership over 20 years ago and has over a hundred lawyers in its service. Raul has an ego as big as the world and it was that self-assuredness that made him notorious in the courtroom. Besides being an astute lawyer, he’s a hopeless playboy who with age developed the tendency to say and do whatever he feels like. His trouble is that he’s constantly abusing that privilege. Helena is a confident woman, albeit more discreet and concerned about the firm's public perception, constantly considering how her actions might negatively affect the partnership and its bottom line. Her personality led her to take over managing the firm, taking care of all bureaucratic affairs. Other lawyers stand out in the firm, as is the case of Pedro Pimentel, who just made senior partner. He’s impeccably put together and has a smile that wins over most women, but behind this agreeable façade of his there’s a person with a lust for power and fame.

Life at 500 mph... Patrícia, Marta, Yara and Weza are flight attendants who share a close friendship travelling between Portugal and Luanda. Filled with humour, strength and hope, these four friends have each other’s back unconditionally, in their highs and lows. As they’re hitting 30, new concerns come up, which they put off, such as marriage, motherhood and their own careers. When confronted with their first big disappointments in their adult lives, they’ll start to question the way they saw their future play out up until then... And the men in their lives as well... Their odd work hours and the distance that separates them leave little room for them getting together so, when their days off match and their flight schedule permitting, they get together and up to speed with each other. When everything in their lives seems to be decided for them, they’ll end up realizing that each day can turn into a new start after all.

Filha da Lei, a criminal series on a Chief Inspector, Isabel Garcia, and the investigation of the most important police case in Portugal in the last 20 years. Garcia is faced with the greatest challenge of her career when she is assigned to lead the Investigation of the violent serial murders that devastate the city. Samuel Lopes, Trainee Inspector with a degree in Criminal Psychology, joins the Garcia Brigade where he will have to earn his place and the respect of the most experienced inspectors. The interaction with the Trainee Inspector helps Garcia to better understand his daughter Sara, a 16-year-old teenager who was married to the implacable journalist Jaime.

A Portuguese series, dealing with terrorism, crime, and the economical crises in Portugal.

Conspiracy Theories

How happy and proud they are those two ladies back in Oporto! Thanks to them, their bright nephew can study medicine in Lisbon and may already have become a doctor. Little do they know, not only Vasco wastes all his time drinking, dancing and picking up girls but he has just failed his final exam! And in that same day, he receives an email from the two aunts announcing their visit to Lisbon! Will he be able to make them believe he is such a good student as they think?

A short time has passed. Both arrived to a point of no return, a break is the only way out. One of them has to take the first step. This morning both decide to leave, definitely, without the other realizing it. The house remains empty.

Ana is in her thirties and unable to share physical intimacy. She has recently started dating and feels increasingly anxious. Her therapist, who is also dealing with her own personal issues, incites Ana to overcome her fears and experience pleasure. As their stories intertwine, unexpected challenges emerge.

Manô, an obscure and anonymous character from popular comedies of the 1920s, escapes the destruction of an old movie studio, materializing into the real world from a celluloid film. Manô tries to adapt and survive in present-day Lisbon, for which he is unprepared. Mariana, an unemployed photographer, meets Manô and tries to help him discover the reason for his return, despite Marco, a psychologist with little sense of humor, disliking this clumsy black-and-white character.

Vera, a single mother with two small children, is forced to have two jobs to survive after her children's father has disappeared. She works as a cashier at a supermarket by day and at night works in a strip club, trying not only to raise her children but also to pay off the debts that her ex-partner left her. Harassed in both jobs, one day she reacts violently when a nightclub client is more daring, being sentenced in court to perform community service in a nursing home, where her irreverence and youth will clash with the authoritarianism and inhumanity of the director. For the elderly who live in the nursing home, Vera is a breath of fresh air that little by little will change their lives, becoming the true home fairy…

In this evocative story told ingeniously with minimal dialogue, men and women from various backgrounds and places each deal with the loss of a loved one.

The story about the romance of Snu Abecassis and the former Portuguese prime minister Sá Carneiro.

THE SMELL OF CANDLES is a short film about the emotional boundaries that bind the relationships between siblings. Sara and Gabriela have long lost contact with each other. They finally meet for their mother's anniversary. Amongst the present silences and the confrontations from the past, the two sisters rediscover their intimacy in an unexpected surprise party.

Fiction is never very far from reality. A young man, of Portuguese heritage, decides to do a PhD based on the documentary The Good People of Portugal, a work from 1980, also directed by Rui Simões. This opens the door to a parallel between the reality of the film we see and that of PREC, the moment of the studied documentary and the contemporary world, with the young Michel in between.