The first feature-length film by Catarina Ruivo, Andre Valente follows the steps of a boy living in the outskirts of Lisbon. Growing up without his father — who has disappeared without trace — André observes his mother’s sadness as he goes about his simple daily life, between school and home. A solution to his loneliness arrives in the form of an unlikely friendship with a neighbour, Nicolai, a migrant from Eastern Europe who is a highly-skilled artistic ice skater. Between his fascination for this substitute father and his mother’s weaknesses, André learns how to survive in a hostile world.