
Directing
Filipa Reis
Born
1977-01-01 (49)
Place of birth
Lisbon, Portugal
Known for
Directing
Credits
42 titles
Filipa REIS (1977) e João MILLER GUERRA (1974)live and work together in Lisbon, Portugal. They directed documentaries Fora da Vida (Best Portuguese Short Film IndieLisboa'15), Bela Vista (Best International Short Film FIDOC'13 and Honorable Mention MiradasDoc'13), Cama de Gato (Best Portuguese Short Film IndieLisboa'12 and Revelation Prize at Festival Luso-Brazilian Santa Maria film'12), Generation Orchestra, Nada Fazi (Best Portuguese Film Fantasporto'12 and audience Award Festival Cortex'12) and Li Ké Terra (Best Portuguese feature film DocLisboa'10 and Special Jury Mention MiradasDoc'11). Their films were presented at international festivals such as Cinéma du Réel, IDFA, DokLeipzig, Bordo…
Known for
7.1Sergio travels to Guinea-Bissau to work for an NGO as an environmental engineer on a road project between the desert and the forest. There, he becomes entangled in an intimate yet unbalanced relationship with two inhabitants of the city, Diara and Gui. As neo-colonial dynamics among the expatriate community unravel, this fragile bond becomes his only refuge from an impending collapse into solitude or barbarism.
I Only Rest in the Storm
2025
6.6Burma, 1917. Edward, a civil servant for the British Empire, jilts his lovestruck fiancée Molly the day she arrives to be married. As he flees into an unexpected odyssey across Asia, the free-spirited Molly-amused by his moves-follows in pursuit, embarking on a globe-trotting cat-and-mouse chase.
Grand Tour
2024
7.0Cláudia Ribeiro spent seven months – since the time of plantation till the crops – capturing the work in the fields of the sisters Ana e Glória, in Passinhos de Cima, between the rivers Douro and Tâmega. It is an isolated place, where the baker, the fish seller, the grocer and their sons visit once a week. This a film on a way of life, the subsistence agriculture, but also about the humour and the ironies of representation and hospitality.
The Life We Know
2020
(within the project URB) CIDADE is a TV series that takes place in the diverse, urbanistically chaotic and multicultural periphery of Lisbon. Each episode has for landscape and dramatic background the everyday-life in the social housing neighborhoods and shanty towns of Lisbon. It explores the infinite possibilities of narratives and characters generated by the daily confrontation of the normal life of the city with several layers of cultural heritages and lifestyles, brought by different waves of migration. A network of interconnected characters, families and ties makes the narrative to evolve and illustrates the cultural, artistic, social and economic explosion that we are about to live in here.
Cidade
2017
6.1Crista, Carloto and João are building an airy greenhouse for butterflies in the garden. The three of them share household routines, day after day… And they are not the only ones.
The Tsugua Diaries
2021
6.0Her name is El - a name that sounds like a letter and makes the young androgynous woman a kind of representative of her generation. A generation that is overwhelmed by all the possibilities of the world, globalization and the digital stream. Lisbon is a promise of freedom, independence and an intense life. But the question of meaning brings doubt into everyday life: what if I were happier with someone else or called another place home? When home no longer feels like home, the search becomes routine. When El meets Kay after a break-up, in the midst of her search, their story together begins. Time, space and emotions implode in "Baan", blurring Lisbon with Bangkok, past with present.
Home
2023
Film credits
Behind the camera
7.1Sergio travels to Guinea-Bissau to work for an NGO as an environmental engineer on a road project between the desert and the forest. There, he becomes entangled in an intimate yet unbalanced relationship with two inhabitants of the city, Diara and Gui. As neo-colonial dynamics among the expatriate community unravel, this fragile bond becomes his only refuge from an impending collapse into solitude or barbarism.
I Only Rest in the Storm
2025
6.6Burma, 1917. Edward, a civil servant for the British Empire, jilts his lovestruck fiancée Molly the day she arrives to be married. As he flees into an unexpected odyssey across Asia, the free-spirited Molly-amused by his moves-follows in pursuit, embarking on a globe-trotting cat-and-mouse chase.
Grand Tour
2024
7.0Cláudia Ribeiro spent seven months – since the time of plantation till the crops – capturing the work in the fields of the sisters Ana e Glória, in Passinhos de Cima, between the rivers Douro and Tâmega. It is an isolated place, where the baker, the fish seller, the grocer and their sons visit once a week. This a film on a way of life, the subsistence agriculture, but also about the humour and the ironies of representation and hospitality.
The Life We Know
2020
(within the project URB) CIDADE is a TV series that takes place in the diverse, urbanistically chaotic and multicultural periphery of Lisbon. Each episode has for landscape and dramatic background the everyday-life in the social housing neighborhoods and shanty towns of Lisbon. It explores the infinite possibilities of narratives and characters generated by the daily confrontation of the normal life of the city with several layers of cultural heritages and lifestyles, brought by different waves of migration. A network of interconnected characters, families and ties makes the narrative to evolve and illustrates the cultural, artistic, social and economic explosion that we are about to live in here.
Cidade
2017
6.1Crista, Carloto and João are building an airy greenhouse for butterflies in the garden. The three of them share household routines, day after day… And they are not the only ones.
The Tsugua Diaries
2021
6.0Her name is El - a name that sounds like a letter and makes the young androgynous woman a kind of representative of her generation. A generation that is overwhelmed by all the possibilities of the world, globalization and the digital stream. Lisbon is a promise of freedom, independence and an intense life. But the question of meaning brings doubt into everyday life: what if I were happier with someone else or called another place home? When home no longer feels like home, the search becomes routine. When El meets Kay after a break-up, in the midst of her search, their story together begins. Time, space and emotions implode in "Baan", blurring Lisbon with Bangkok, past with present.
Home
2023
NRThree men wash ashore in a forgotten cove, where time seems to have stood still. Surrounded by volcanic rocks and tides, they find themselves confined in a place as beautiful as it is inhospitable. As the days go by, a strange presence begins to insinuate itself among them.
Calhau
2025
No synopsis available yet.
A Colónia
—
6.4October 2019, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk (UK). Three months before Brexit. Hundreds of Portuguese migrant workers pour into town, seeking work at the local turkey factories. Tânia (The Mother of the Portuguese), a former worker in these poultry plants, is now married to an English hotel owner. She is the perfect facilitator for the Portuguese workers, but dreams of becoming a British citizen and leaving this dirty business behind by transforming her husband’s derelict hotels into refurbished senior citizens homes.
Great Yarmouth: Provisional Figures
2022
NRAra has always believed she will vanish when she turns 28 years old. As her birthday approaches, she submerges in the most fundamental sensations of existence. A masterful debut film from director-writer Ágata de Pinho, whose performance leads her character from trauma to catharsis in the most beautiful way.
Blue Has No Dimensions
2022
9.0Using the author's personal estate, current images of places where she lived or were dear to her, and archival images of television and film; using parts of her prose and poetry always with first-person testimonies; from Porto to Lisbon, from Granja to Lagos, from the Atlantic Sea to the Mediterranean, from Greece to 25 April: the passions and disappointments of a life and work dedicated to the search for the real, freedom and justice.
Sophia, In Her Own Words
2019
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Imitação de Vida
2025
3.0While observing others, Paula is also, herself, observed. ' Know the difference between an old maid and a spinster? The old maid does not have a choice. '
Fragmentos de Uma Observação Participativa
2013
3.0While observing others, Paula is also, herself, observed. ' Know the difference between an old maid and a spinster? The old maid does not have a choice. '
Fragmentos de Uma Observação Participativa
2013
NRIn the early '90s, Portuguese nanny Leonor accompanies 8-year-old Vera to France, where Vera spends her vacation with her estranged French father and his new family. The deep bond between Leonor and Vera, along with the language barrier isolating them, creates a complex dynamic. As tensions mount, Leonor faces reminders of her subordinate position within the household.
Stone Beach
2025
6.0By the director: "Ar.Co embodies each person’s geography, it escapes normalisation. Each individual’s experience is his own. This film is my experience, our experience. Pieced together from the school’s archive, from recordings of classes by Manuel Castro Caldas and from conversations at home."
The Indispensable Practice of Vagueness
2014
NRThree researchers embark on a study, "10 Years of Social Reintegration in the Casal of Boba neighborhood". A film camera used for their research is stolen and, as it is passed from hand to hand, records a crime. Nada Fazi (Creole for "It's inevitable") is a shared and fragmented view of the day-to-day life of a neighborhood. An outside view that morphs into an intimate journey through the lives of a group of youths.
Nada Fazi
2012
NRLives being lived, words, gestures, gazes cross our paths, amidst a chaos en framed by a rectangular grid of windows and balconies. Rows of buildings interconnected by corridors perched over courtyards. Each ones property off their private slice of the view. The geometry of the life of a neighborhood: Bela Vista.
Bela Vista
2012
NRLives being lived, words, gestures, gazes cross our paths, amidst a chaos en framed by a rectangular grid of windows and balconies. Rows of buildings interconnected by corridors perched over courtyards. Each ones property off their private slice of the view. The geometry of the life of a neighborhood: Bela Vista.
Bela Vista
2012
NROn a sunny afternoon in Lisbon, Manel leaves home to look for work. He comes across an old church and remembers his late friend Pedro. The history of this space intertwines with Manel's emotional journey.
Andar com Fé
2025
NR1975, the year after the Carnation Revolution. Eduarda, João and Mick come from Northern Europe to work in the co-ops in the occupied farms of central Portugal. Like many others, they come to help with the land and the livestock, give medical appointments, family planning classes, show sexual education films and participate in the traditional dances. They bring a great deal of questions, but the “comrades from the South”, in turn, have more questions than answers.
A Pleasure, Comrades!
2021
5.0Generation Orchestra is a portrait of the impact of an initiative by the same name students from the Miguel Torga School, in Amadora. The initiative was inspired by the international project Orquestra Simon Bolivar, the apex of the National Network of Youth and Children's Orchestras of Venezuela. Ana, Daniel, Diogo and Monica take part in Generation Orchestra and devote themselves to a project that breaks with the formatted context of public schooling and becomes an indispensable part of their lives. From the onset, starting with Drama classes, we discover their dreams, their relationship with music and their sense of truly belonging to a group.
Orquestra Geração
2011
5.0Generation Orchestra is a portrait of the impact of an initiative by the same name students from the Miguel Torga School, in Amadora. The initiative was inspired by the international project Orquestra Simon Bolivar, the apex of the National Network of Youth and Children's Orchestras of Venezuela. Ana, Daniel, Diogo and Monica take part in Generation Orchestra and devote themselves to a project that breaks with the formatted context of public schooling and becomes an indispensable part of their lives. From the onset, starting with Drama classes, we discover their dreams, their relationship with music and their sense of truly belonging to a group.
Orquestra Geração
2011
5.0Generation Orchestra is a portrait of the impact of an initiative by the same name students from the Miguel Torga School, in Amadora. The initiative was inspired by the international project Orquestra Simon Bolivar, the apex of the National Network of Youth and Children's Orchestras of Venezuela. Ana, Daniel, Diogo and Monica take part in Generation Orchestra and devote themselves to a project that breaks with the formatted context of public schooling and becomes an indispensable part of their lives. From the onset, starting with Drama classes, we discover their dreams, their relationship with music and their sense of truly belonging to a group.
Orquestra Geração
2011
6.8The story of Miguel Moreira and Ruben Furtado, two Cape Verdean immigrant descendants who live in Portugal but have no legal documents. They are torn between the desire to be a full Portuguese citizen and the obstacles they find in their day to day. Proud of being who they are they keep on dreaming of their future reflecting their wishes for a better life. Above all, Michael and Ruben lead us to one question: What kind of identity has a stateless person?
Li Ké Terra
2010
7.0School is over and there's a hustle in the air. In Porto, tourists fill up the streets and cafés. The old and decadent are now the highlights of the city’s gentrification. Vicente moves around town on his bike and watches the urban changes happening day to day. The town is no longer the same, the world is changing and so is he. Among his family and friends, Vicente lives with anticipation the first days of summer and the beginning of a new life.
Dogs Barking at Birds
2019
5.3A portrait of the daily lives of young people living in a new-built estate on the outskirts of Lisbon. School is a joke and there’s no work to be had anyway, so the girls try to have fun as best they can. New-girl Eva is very pretty but quiet. The others aren’t sure at first whether she’s arrogant or just shy. Iara and Eva head off to the beach with two boys. The lads turn a couple of abandoned shopping trolleys into racing chariots for them and the atmosphere begins to tingle. Later, they argue with the rest of the group. The other girls manage to get into a club that night but the boys don’t and must kick their heels outside. They’re bent on revenge. They meet up with Eva and go back to her place.
The End of the World
2013
6.3Ashore portrays the life of a singular fisherman in an ancient riverfront community near Lisbon. Divided between the quiet solitude of the river and the family ties that wash him ashore, the film follows Albertino Lobo, as nature renews itself with each season cycle.
Ashore
2018
NRUM CORPO DE DANÇA is a proposal for the history of the body, showed through the path of the biggest Portuguese dance company of the 20th century. The documentary follows the rise of dance in Portugal along with the country’s political, economic and sociocultural ongoings as background. It is the story of a transforming body that frees itself from a fascist dictatorship, and of a changing society that opens itself to the world. From unreleased archive images and interviews with several creators and dancers, we follow the path of an extraordinary dance company through the movements and words of its protagonists, from creation in the early 1960s to its extinction in 2005.
Um Corpo que Dança - Ballet Gulbenkian 1965-2005
2022
NROrphan of the country where he was born, orphan of the Portuguese state. Imprisoned for half his life, never free. Bruno is ‘Ghoya’, a Cape Verdean Creole rapper and political activist. This film is a crossroads in a moment of struggle and life.
Complô
2025
5.0Mena lives alone with her daughter Clara. Today is Clara’s seventh birthday. Despite her limited financial resources, Mena still manages to organise a birthday party. But after a phone call from her mother, she becomes distraught and anxious.
Party Day
2019
6.5Portugal, 1968. Salazar, the fascist dictator who reigned the longest time in the world, falls from a chair and suffers a stroke. When he returns to the São Bento mansion to convalesce, he is no longer President of the Council. But no one tells him the truth: not his faithful housekeeper Maria de Jesus, nor his maids Aparecida, Socorro, and Teresinha, nor his personal doctor. For two years he lives under a meticulously constructed illusion, believing he is still President, until his death in 1970.
Our Father: The Last Days of a Dictator
2026
NRGonçalo and his friends set off on a mission to his deceased grandfather’s house, in the north of Portugal. There, the memories of the past open up new perspectives into the future.
O Filme Feliz :)
2023
6.2Miguel —alias Tibars, alias “Djon África,” born and raised in Portugal— is a kindhearted Rastafarian who loves women and lives a carefree life. Until one day a stranger tells him he's the spitting image of his father, “a player and a crook.” His father, whom he never even knew! This intriguing discovery makes him change tack. Particularly when his grandmother, who always took care of him, finally tells him how his father was in prison; how sad Miguel was as a toddler when he couldn't see him; how his father was banished to Cape Verde. Miguel goes there to visit him. Who is this man?
Djon Africa
2018
5.8The portrait of a community as they face their country's economic recession.
On The Side
2015
6.5“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
Batrachian's Ballad
2016
NRMinas de São Domingos is a small village built on a mine in the Alentejo region of Portugal. Today, the mine, which in other times kept its neighbours in employment, is no longer operating. It is difficult to imagine a future for this slightly forgotten land, criss-crossed by ruins that bear witness to a happier era, and virtually abandoned by inhabitants forced to leave to find work elsewhere. It’s summer, children play in the street, tourists camp next to the river, adults burst into traditional song in the ruins of the mine. Here, everything happens as a community, as if being together was the only possible answer to the question formulated by the film’s title.
Life Out There Has It Been Seen?
2018
NRUbu, instigated by his wife, murders King Venceslau and usurps the throne of Poland. Intoxicated by power, this grotesque and coward character conducts his reign in an absurd and cruel way, leading his kingdom to ruin. A cinematographic adaptation of Alfred Jarry’s play, a political satire that, cyclically, turns to the reality of world politics.
Ubu
2023
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Uma História do Espectador de Cinema
2023
NRMuanza, a woman born in the Kingdom of Kongo in the early nineteenth century and trafficked to Brazil, awakens to find herself in the present, roaming the streets of Rio’s rapidly changing port region, known as ‘Pequena Africa’, or Little Africa.
Formosa Beach
2024
