Best Portuguese documentary movies

Pelé (2021)

Against the backdrop of a turbulent era in Brazil, this documentary captures Pelé's extraordinary path from breakthrough talent to national hero. Mixing rare archival footage and exclusive interviews, this documentary celebrates the legendary Brazilian footballer who personified football as art.

Fados (2007)

A series of musical performances showcasing the diverse facets of fado, a musical genre from Lisbon.

Forever Chape (2018)

In the wake of the plane crash that claimed the lives of 71 people, the Brazilian soccer club Chapecoense seeks to rebuild the team that once made history.

Working on the Douro River (1931)

Short silent documentary from 1931 about those working on the River Douro in Oporto.

Shrooms (2023)

Follows Dan, a young Venezuelan man currently living in Lisbon, who collects magic mushrooms in the forest and distributes them in the city to those in need of help - like a New Age Robin Hood - using pigeons as carriers.

Elis Regina: Doce de Pimenta (2007)

She mesmerised the crowd. The first sight would rapidly disappear and anyone who would get closer would also be surprised. It is not known if she did it for "beauty or precision", as Guimarães Rosa used to say. But the truth is that stereotypes would be destroyed as soon as she would fetch her followers. And revelations would unfold. Behind her suavely acute and toned voice, there was a deep tone that only few could reach. Behind her humble upbringing, there was an uncommon sensibility and intelligence. Her disguise was her irrepressible technique. Elis was pure emotion. And singing was not her final objective, she really wanted to make people happy. This film honours Elis and creates a singular portrait of Brazil's biggest star.

The Metamorphosis of Birds (2021)

Filmmaker Catarina Vasconcelos sifts through the memories of her ancestors. Her naval officer grandfather, Henrique, who married her grandmother, Beatriz, on her 21st birthday, spent extended periods at sea, leaving her with six children. This is the beginning of a generational saga.

Visit, or Memories and Confessions (1993)

A long-hidden, personal doc about leaving a beloved house by the late, revered Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira.

Salgueiro Maia - The Implicated (2022)

On April 25, 1974, a man walked alone in Largo do Carmo. He knocked on the GNR military barracks door and entered, unarmed and without any escorts. Inside, the Government’s chief, Marcelo Caetano, waited, surrounded by the military and the people. The man who stared at him that afternoon and demanded surrender, guaranteeing his safety, had just led Santarém’s Artillery 1 regiment in taking the capital. Without firing a single shot, he managed to overthrow a regime that was over 48 years old. That was the last step to take and he took it, without hesitation, becoming the unavoidable figure of the day that marked the beginning of democracy in Portugal

Défilement (2023)

Daniela takes us to the most festive photographs in her family album, the photographs from her birthdays. It is through the images that she goes around the crowded table and reveals her greatest desires and frustrations and those of her closest family members.

Eusebio - The Story of a Legend (2017)

It all started in Mafalala, a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Lourenço Marques, Mozambique. A kid kicked into rag balls and did not care much about school. This kid was called Eusébio da Silva Ferreira and would become one of the best footballers of all time. This is the narrative of "Eusebius - A History of a Legend", a documentary film made by Filipe Ascensão and that counted on the collaboration of Eusebio himself in the last years of his life, before dying, in January 2014. Released in the year in which Eusebio would be 75 years old, the film counts on testimonies of many people who have crossed with him, from Hilário da Conceição, his childhood friend who would also be a footballer, to Bobby Charlton, opponent in the 1966 World Cup, passing by Antonio Simões, the " White brother "who accompanied him from Benfica to the end of his US career, and some of his Portuguese soccer heirs like Luís Figo, Rui Costa and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Utopia and Barbarism (2009)

The world post-World War II and its transformations; the utopias that were created and the barbarity that have marked it. The dismantling of the dreaming generation of 1968 and the creation of new prospects in a globalized world.

Independence (2015)

A documentary reflecting on the memories and facts of the war of liberation in Angola.

Alcindo (2021)

On June 10, 1995, to celebrate the Day of the Race and Sporting’s victory in the Portuguese football cup, a group of Portuguese ethno-nationalists went to the streets of Bairro Alto (Lisbon) to beat up Black people. The official outcome was 11 victims, one of which died.

What Now? Remind Me (2014)

Joaquim Pinto has been living with HIV and VHC for almost twenty years. “What now? Remind Me” is the notebook of a year of clinical studies with toxic, mind altering drugs as yet unapproved. An open and eclectic reflection on time and memory, on epidemics and globalization, on survival beyond all expectations, on dissent and absolute love. In a to-and-fro between present and past memories, the film is also a tribute to friends departed and those who remain.

Uma Montanha do Tamanho do Homem (2014)

Eunice or a Letter to a Young Actress (2021)

We revisit the life of Eunice Muñoz through the private memories of her house. We watch the intimate side of the actress, who does not play any part here but that of being who she is next to whom she loves. We watch her natural complicity with Lídia, how they bodies are 62 years apart but their spirits not even one. They open us the door to their intimacy and household rituals. Certain that theatre is more real than life, it was up to the two actresses to live a purer form of life, one that would overcome every likelihood of theatre, turning cinema into the most beautiful con in the world.

Redemption (2013)

On January 21, 1975, in a village in the north of Portugal, a child writes to his parents who are in Angola to tell them how sad Portugal is. On July 13, 2011, in Milan, an old man remembers his first love. On May 6, 2012, in Paris, a man tells his baby daughter that he will never be a real father. During a wedding ceremony on September 3, 1977 in Leipzig, the bride battles against a Wagner opera that she can’t get out of her head. But where and when have these four poor devils begun searching for redemption?

Here Come the Brides (2016)

A personal documentary about gay marriage in Brazil that focuses on the filmmaker Fábia Sartori Fuzeti, who opens the film by proposing to her partner Gabriela Torrezani. The movie follows their footsteps from that moment until their big day. At the same time, it explores the lives various gay and lesbian couples that got tied the knot since the Brazilian Supreme Court legalised gay marriage in June 2011.

Meninos e reis (2016)

Rising Sun Blues (2022)

An actress asks a sex worker to help her create a film in which they share secrets of their professions, and they become both filmmakers and characters.

FlorCaveira (2017)

Part of the "I Love My Label" documental project dedicated to independent music labels from Portugal.

The Bath (2022)

A baby is bathed by its mother, who sings: “When I was a young girl…”. Later, a little girl’s voice will pick up the thread: “When I’ll be an old lady…”. Between the two, the film sketches an anthropology of all the different games, wonders, and plays with auditory perceptions that children carry out with water in all its shapes (baths, sprinklers, lakes…). But other dimensions are hinted at: an exploration of its meanings for mankind, a kaleidoscope of its movements, textures, and reflections, a spectrum of the scales in which it is to be contemplated. (Nathan Letoré)

The Sacrifice of the Druids (2020)

Lusitanian Illusion (2010)

Images and sounds expose the duality of Portugal during the days of WW2: a peaceful, god-loving, rural country, providing an escape route for over one hundred thousand European refugees to the Americas; and a political and cultural elite that disguised their Nazi inclinations just enough to play its neutral role in international politics.

Batrachian's Ballad (2016)

“Once upon a time, before people came along, all the creatures were free and able to be with one another”, narrates the voiceover. “All the animals danced together and were immeasurably happy. There was only one who wasn’t invited to the celebration – the frog. In his rage about the injustice, he committed suicide.” Something Romani and frogs have in common is that they will never be unseen, or stay unnoticed. In her film, young director Leonor Teles weaves the life circumstance of Romani in Portugal today with the recollections of a yesterday. Anything but a passive observer, Teles consciously decides to participate and take up position. As a third pillar, she establishes an active applied performance art that becomes integrated in the cinematic narrative. Thereby transforming “once upon a time” into “there is”. “Afterwards, nothing will be as it was and the melody of life will have changed”, explains a voice off-camera. Golden Bear for Best Short Film 2016

Jewels (2013)

A story about survival, belief in the physical memory of things, as if still-life was always part of the scientific possibility or of the nightmare of extinction.

Cochin (2003)

A documentary organized around the promotion of Indo-Portuguese cultural heritage, with commented pictures of the most striking examples of civil and religious architecture and housing areas marked by portuguese traditional construction. Patent portuguese memory in everyday's commercial and artistic life of Cochin, now the capital of Kerala state and surrounding regions of Cranganor, Calicut, Quilon and Travancore. The undisputed and recognized influence of Indo-Portuguese Catholic communities across the region.

Gypsophila (2015)

A woman decides to film her visits to her grandmother. In the quiet home, the camera captures the unique relation between these two women 50 years apart. With days passing by, the lines between film and life increasingly become blurred.

Humberto Gessinger: inSULar (2014)

Celebrating a 30-year carrer, the multi-instrumentist, singer, composer, and brazilian writer, Humberto Gessinger is releasing the DVD "Insular - Ao Vivo". This is the register of the concert recorded in Belo Horizonte/MG; It counts with songs from his new album, as well as older hits from his formers works.