Seleção Nacional: The Stone Still Hopes to Bloom

With the aim of reflecting on, valuing, and promoting national film heritage, Batalha curates an annual cycle entirely dedicated to Portuguese cinema and its history, presented every other Wednesday. This is a broad, thematically organized programme made up of essential works that allow us to revisit and recontextualize the foundations of our cinema. This new edition, curated by a guest team, offers a selection of films that explore the many territories and transgressions of Portuguese cinema across different periods.

Borrowing its title from a book by Raúl Brandão, A Pedra ainda Espera Dar Flor (The Stone Still Hopes to Bloom), this third chapter focuses on Portuguese representations of childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. How do our dilemmas and challenges evolve as we grow older and gain more experience? And how do we manage to persist, rooted in life, despite these obstacles?

This programme includes, among others, films by Miguel Gomes, Cristèle Alves Meira, Pedro Costa, and Teresa Villaverde. These works explore themes such as the loss of loved ones, family pressures and restructuring, sexual awakening, the search for independence, and unrestrained fun. Interestingly, this chapter also reveals, in several cases, the early steps of the filmmakers themselves—as if we are witnessing the growing pains and discoveries of their artistic coming-of-age.

Curated by Carlos Natálio (professor and film critic), Joana Gusmão (producer and organizer) and Luísa Sequeira (film maker and organizer)

Programme developed with the support of the Cinemateca Portuguesa — Museu do Cinema