
Directing
João Botelho
Born
1949-05-11 (77)
Place of birth
Lamego, Portugal
Known for
Directing
Credits
51 titles
Known for
NRNo synopsis available yet.
História do Cinema Português
2001
NRA look at the art of two pairs of brothers, plastic artists: João Queiroz, Jorge Queiroz; Pedro Tropa and Francisco Tropa.
Four
2014
3.8The complex relationship between master and servant is explored in director João Botelho's adaptation of Denis Diderot's popular novel Jacques le Fataliste et Son Maître. As Tiago (Rogério Samora) drives his master (André Gomes) through the Portuguese countryside to an unspecified destination, the traveling pair embark on a series of highly philosophical discussions. Flowing with tales of his life in the military and previous sexual escapades, Tiago trades a series of tales with his rapt passenger, including the story of a vengeful spurned lover who plots revenge on the nobleman who rejected her by transforming a prostitute into a society lady and convincing him to marry the tainted bride.
The Fatalist
2005
7.0A dozen of the revolutionary Army officers that played eminent parts in the change of political regime in Portugal, from a military dictatorship to a social-democracy, read a book to a young girl, describing in a poetic, yet realistic way, what happened in the streets, and minds, of her People in April 25, 1974.
Se a Memória Existe
2000
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Coração no Escuro - Um Roubo de um Roubo em 11 Quadros
2011
6.0This Portuguese movie directed by João Botelho, is part of The Four Elements series. This is the second episode, The Air.
No Dia dos Meus Anos
1992
Film credits
2020s · 3 titles
NRAriel de Bigault's work has been connected to the routes of the Lusophone World. In Fantasmas do Império we are guided by the saotomean actor Angelo Torres through some works of the Portuguese cinema that explored its colonial past. Some directors as Fernando Matos Silva, João Botelho or Margarida Cardoso help to understand imperialism, colonialism, and propaganda seen through the "family album" which is the Portuguese cinematic collective imaginary.
Fantasmas do Império
2020
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Caos do Sodré
2022
8.0A reorganization within a crime syndicate.
Blackpot
2023
2010s · 3 titles
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Coração no Escuro - Um Roubo de um Roubo em 11 Quadros
2011
6.4“An old photograph taken 36 years ago. His hand rests on my shoulder. A blessing, a gift. Then a history of over four decades of friendship, admiration and apprenticeship. A journey into Oliveira’s cinema, his method, his way of filming and his extraordinary cinematic inventions. He lived for over a century, over a century of cinema, cinema in its entirety. For him, and for me too now, documentary and fiction films go hand in hand; it is all about cinema. So I had the audacity to film a magnificent story that Manoel loved but never filmed, one that he left behind as if his hand and eyes were close to God, or among the gods, and he was steering me.” - João Botelho
Cinema, Manoel de Oliveira and Me
2016
NRCinema and affections from life in images and what goes on outside the frame. 'Snapshots' of shootings and the present-day memory of directors, actors and technicians.
Acts of Cinema
2018
2000s · 1 titles
1990s · 2 titles
6.5The city during the beginning of cinema. The typical city at the time of the dictatorship. The New Lisbon of the New Cinema. Lisbon after the Revolution. The white city of foreigners. A geographical and moviegoer screenplay of Lisbon through the images of films and testimonies of several filmmakers who filmed in Lisbon.
Lisboa no Cinema, Um Ponto de Vista
1994
No synopsis available yet.
Cinéma Portugais – Un Mode d'Emploi
1990
Series credits
Behind the camera
NRA look at the art of two pairs of brothers, plastic artists: João Queiroz, Jorge Queiroz; Pedro Tropa and Francisco Tropa.
Four
2014
3.8The complex relationship between master and servant is explored in director João Botelho's adaptation of Denis Diderot's popular novel Jacques le Fataliste et Son Maître. As Tiago (Rogério Samora) drives his master (André Gomes) through the Portuguese countryside to an unspecified destination, the traveling pair embark on a series of highly philosophical discussions. Flowing with tales of his life in the military and previous sexual escapades, Tiago trades a series of tales with his rapt passenger, including the story of a vengeful spurned lover who plots revenge on the nobleman who rejected her by transforming a prostitute into a society lady and convincing him to marry the tainted bride.
The Fatalist
2005
3.8The complex relationship between master and servant is explored in director João Botelho's adaptation of Denis Diderot's popular novel Jacques le Fataliste et Son Maître. As Tiago (Rogério Samora) drives his master (André Gomes) through the Portuguese countryside to an unspecified destination, the traveling pair embark on a series of highly philosophical discussions. Flowing with tales of his life in the military and previous sexual escapades, Tiago trades a series of tales with his rapt passenger, including the story of a vengeful spurned lover who plots revenge on the nobleman who rejected her by transforming a prostitute into a society lady and convincing him to marry the tainted bride.
The Fatalist
2005
7.0A dozen of the revolutionary Army officers that played eminent parts in the change of political regime in Portugal, from a military dictatorship to a social-democracy, read a book to a young girl, describing in a poetic, yet realistic way, what happened in the streets, and minds, of her People in April 25, 1974.
Se a Memória Existe
2000
7.0A dozen of the revolutionary Army officers that played eminent parts in the change of political regime in Portugal, from a military dictatorship to a social-democracy, read a book to a young girl, describing in a poetic, yet realistic way, what happened in the streets, and minds, of her People in April 25, 1974.
Se a Memória Existe
2000
6.0This Portuguese movie directed by João Botelho, is part of The Four Elements series. This is the second episode, The Air.
No Dia dos Meus Anos
1992
6.0This Portuguese movie directed by João Botelho, is part of The Four Elements series. This is the second episode, The Air.
No Dia dos Meus Anos
1992
6.4“An old photograph taken 36 years ago. His hand rests on my shoulder. A blessing, a gift. Then a history of over four decades of friendship, admiration and apprenticeship. A journey into Oliveira’s cinema, his method, his way of filming and his extraordinary cinematic inventions. He lived for over a century, over a century of cinema, cinema in its entirety. For him, and for me too now, documentary and fiction films go hand in hand; it is all about cinema. So I had the audacity to film a magnificent story that Manoel loved but never filmed, one that he left behind as if his hand and eyes were close to God, or among the gods, and he was steering me.” - João Botelho
Cinema, Manoel de Oliveira and Me
2016
6.4“An old photograph taken 36 years ago. His hand rests on my shoulder. A blessing, a gift. Then a history of over four decades of friendship, admiration and apprenticeship. A journey into Oliveira’s cinema, his method, his way of filming and his extraordinary cinematic inventions. He lived for over a century, over a century of cinema, cinema in its entirety. For him, and for me too now, documentary and fiction films go hand in hand; it is all about cinema. So I had the audacity to film a magnificent story that Manoel loved but never filmed, one that he left behind as if his hand and eyes were close to God, or among the gods, and he was steering me.” - João Botelho
Cinema, Manoel de Oliveira and Me
2016
5.7Young Jesus is taken on a vacation by his parents (Rita Blanco, Adriano Luz) to a deserted beach resort. They accidentally fall into overnight wealth after Jesus digs in the sand, uncovering a large drug stash. Others characters intersecting here include an alcoholic actress, a philandering banker, a general trafficking in arms, priests who close their church and head north as hitchhikers, politicians who watch an all-girl production of Julius Caesar, and beggars who recite a children's story in a huge heap of trash.
Traffic
1998
5.7Young Jesus is taken on a vacation by his parents (Rita Blanco, Adriano Luz) to a deserted beach resort. They accidentally fall into overnight wealth after Jesus digs in the sand, uncovering a large drug stash. Others characters intersecting here include an alcoholic actress, a philandering banker, a general trafficking in arms, priests who close their church and head north as hitchhikers, politicians who watch an all-girl production of Julius Caesar, and beggars who recite a children's story in a huge heap of trash.
Traffic
1998
4.4Fernando Pessoa, one of the greatest writers in Portuguese, created an immense parallel world and several heteronyms so as to endure the loneliness of genius. José Saramago, 1998 Nobel Laureate in Literature, has a heteronym, Ricardo Reis, return to Portugal after a 16-year exile in Brazil. 1936 is a perilous year with Mussolini’s fascism, Hitler’s Nazism, Spain’s Civil War and Salazar’s New State in Portugal. And Fernando Pessoa meets his creation, Reis. Two women, Lídia and Marcenda, are Reis’ carnal and impossible passions. “Life and Death as one” allows for literature and cinema.
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis
2020
4.4Fernando Pessoa, one of the greatest writers in Portuguese, created an immense parallel world and several heteronyms so as to endure the loneliness of genius. José Saramago, 1998 Nobel Laureate in Literature, has a heteronym, Ricardo Reis, return to Portugal after a 16-year exile in Brazil. 1936 is a perilous year with Mussolini’s fascism, Hitler’s Nazism, Spain’s Civil War and Salazar’s New State in Portugal. And Fernando Pessoa meets his creation, Reis. Two women, Lídia and Marcenda, are Reis’ carnal and impossible passions. “Life and Death as one” allows for literature and cinema.
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis
2020
NRNo synopsis available yet.
A Terra Antes do Céu
2007
NR"Come and see this world end!" - wrote the the priest António Fontes, father of folk medicine and "burning witches" in Vilar de Perdizes, a desperate plea in his precious monograph of the Barroso region. And I (João Botelho) went. Then I saw the people and the land. Haunting on discovery. Heart sank. "God is good but the devil is not so bad!" - We learned from this Community habits and that is great, tough and generous. And I also learned that no fairer place for a demand of life and even the elusive happiness there, I assure you, it is always possible.
Para Que Este Mundo Não Acabe!
2009
NR"Come and see this world end!" - wrote the the priest António Fontes, father of folk medicine and "burning witches" in Vilar de Perdizes, a desperate plea in his precious monograph of the Barroso region. And I (João Botelho) went. Then I saw the people and the land. Haunting on discovery. Heart sank. "God is good but the devil is not so bad!" - We learned from this Community habits and that is great, tough and generous. And I also learned that no fairer place for a demand of life and even the elusive happiness there, I assure you, it is always possible.
Para Que Este Mundo Não Acabe!
2009
NRA journey inside the tram crossing the city of Lisbon while listening to fragments of Fernando Pessoa's poetry.
Oh Lisboa, Meu Lar
2010
5.5Alexandra Lencastre plays a woman who believes she is President of the U.S.A.
A Mulher que Acreditava Ser Presidente dos EUA
2003
5.5Alexandra Lencastre plays a woman who believes she is President of the U.S.A.
A Mulher que Acreditava Ser Presidente dos EUA
2003
7.3A film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel "Hard Times" set in a Portuguese industrial town of the 1980s.
Hard Times
1988
7.3A film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel "Hard Times" set in a Portuguese industrial town of the 1980s.
Hard Times
1988
7.3A film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel "Hard Times" set in a Portuguese industrial town of the 1980s.
Hard Times
1988
5.5Lisbon, today. In a room of a house at Douradores Street, a man invents dreams and theorizes about them. The essence of the dreams itself becomes physical, palpable, visible. The text itself materializes in its musicality. And, in front of our eyes, this music can be felt with the ears, brain and heart. It spreads itself in the street where the man lives, in the city that he loves above all and over the entire world.
Disquiet
2010
5.5Lisbon, today. In a room of a house at Douradores Street, a man invents dreams and theorizes about them. The essence of the dreams itself becomes physical, palpable, visible. The text itself materializes in its musicality. And, in front of our eyes, this music can be felt with the ears, brain and heart. It spreads itself in the street where the man lives, in the city that he loves above all and over the entire world.
Disquiet
2010
5.0Adaptation of a 1987 novel by Agustina Bessa Luis, a multi-generation exploration of a wealthy family with a mysterious past and a house on the island of Madeira.
True and Tender is the North
2008
5.0Adaptation of a 1987 novel by Agustina Bessa Luis, a multi-generation exploration of a wealthy family with a mysterious past and a house on the island of Madeira.
True and Tender is the North
2008
4.2Organized like a dream, structured like a musical and with texts, both spoken and sung, that lead us to unexpected, chaotic and exciting situations, which try to grasp part of what the unattainable Alexandre O'Neill left us.
Um Filme em Forma de Assim
2022
4.2Organized like a dream, structured like a musical and with texts, both spoken and sung, that lead us to unexpected, chaotic and exciting situations, which try to grasp part of what the unattainable Alexandre O'Neill left us.
Um Filme em Forma de Assim
2022
5.8The tragedy and comedy in Carlos' life begins, grows and ends like the tragedy and comedy of Portugal. In the company of his close friend, João da Ega, allegedly a brilliant writer, Carlos, with his idle existence as an aristocratic doctor, spends his time to enjoying friends and lovers. Until he falls in love. She is a new character in this revolutionary novel. It's a vertiginous passion that goes beyond that past gloominess to reach a new and darker abyss, incest.
The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family
2014
5.8The tragedy and comedy in Carlos' life begins, grows and ends like the tragedy and comedy of Portugal. In the company of his close friend, João da Ega, allegedly a brilliant writer, Carlos, with his idle existence as an aristocratic doctor, spends his time to enjoying friends and lovers. Until he falls in love. She is a new character in this revolutionary novel. It's a vertiginous passion that goes beyond that past gloominess to reach a new and darker abyss, incest.
The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family
2014
5.2A choreographic poem by Maurice Ravel.
La Valse
2012
5.6Adventurer, pilgrim, penitent but above all outstanding writer, Fernão Mendes Pinto left us an unparalleled romance, the living and human palpitation of one of the greatest historical adventures of man.
Pilgrimage
2017
5.6Adventurer, pilgrim, penitent but above all outstanding writer, Fernão Mendes Pinto left us an unparalleled romance, the living and human palpitation of one of the greatest historical adventures of man.
Pilgrimage
2017
NRDocumentary about Vale do Côa.
A Arte da Luz Tem 20.000 Anos
2014
NRA documentary about the singings of a Portuguese Village that has their own dialect
Anquanto La Lhéngua Fur Cantada
2012
3.7A crime drama based on the life of a woman who lived for years with a man that was the head of a corruption network in the Portuguese football world.
Corruption
2007
3.7A crime drama based on the life of a woman who lived for years with a man that was the head of a corruption network in the Portuguese football world.
Corruption
2007
6.2In Africa, during the colonial war, a patrol is lost in the bush and a soldier dies in operation. Twelve years later, in Portugal, the soldier family meets in peace.
A Portuguese Farewell
1986
6.2In Africa, during the colonial war, a patrol is lost in the bush and a soldier dies in operation. Twelve years later, in Portugal, the soldier family meets in peace.
A Portuguese Farewell
1986
6.2In Africa, during the colonial war, a patrol is lost in the bush and a soldier dies in operation. Twelve years later, in Portugal, the soldier family meets in peace.
A Portuguese Farewell
1986


