Leonor Noivo

Directing

Leonor Noivo

Known for

Directing

Credits

40 titles

Leonor Noivo studied architecture and photography before joining the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema in Lisbon where she specializes in editing and directing. Since 1999, she has been working as a script-supervisor and an assistant director on films and documentaries, as well as creating contents and video installations. She signs several shorts including Excursion, which wins the Prémio Tobis for the Best Portuguese short film at the IndieLisboa in 2007, and A Cidade e o Sol (2011). Leonor Noivo is also the co-founder of the production company, “Terratreme”.

Known for

No artwork available
NR

(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

Clandestina poster
NR

In order to reflect upon current practices of political dissent, we delve into the past and follow the experiences of a young artist. Invited to go underground in Portugal, during the second half of the 20th century, Margarida Tengarrinha played an important role in anti-fascist resistance, becoming a forger out of political activism. Given the anachronism, Clandestina is like a letter to a time yet to come, a premonition of the tragic possibility of History repeating itself.

Clandestina

2024

Astrakan 79 poster
NR

1979. Flicking through pictures from a Soviet magazine, 15-year-old Martim dreams of building a new society. His radical communist parents send him to study at Astrakan for one year. In her new film, Catarina Mourão captures with tremendous precision the moment a middle-aged man passes his story on to his son, thus shedding the taboo of his ineffable experience.

Astrakan 79

2024

The Nothing Factory poster
6.0

One night, a group of workers realises that the administration is stealing machines and raw materials from their own factory. As they organize to survey the equipment and block the relocation of production, they are forced to stand at their posts with no work to do, as a form of retaliation, while negotiations over general lay-offs take place. The pressure leads to a breakdown of the workers along with the world around them.

The Nothing Factory

2017

Dawn poster
NR

Maria starts to show signs of wanting to belong somewhere else: scales appear on her skin, roots appear on her legs, and she hears the sound of water - she dreams of being a fish. One day her daughter comes across her disappearance and reconstructs, through the memory of her gestures and meetings with her mother, a possible explanation for her escape.

Dawn

2021

Setembro poster
NR

Mother and son move into a new house, a new city, a new story.

Setembro

2016

Behind the camera

No artwork available
NR

(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

No artwork available
NR

(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

Clandestina poster
NR

In order to reflect upon current practices of political dissent, we delve into the past and follow the experiences of a young artist. Invited to go underground in Portugal, during the second half of the 20th century, Margarida Tengarrinha played an important role in anti-fascist resistance, becoming a forger out of political activism. Given the anachronism, Clandestina is like a letter to a time yet to come, a premonition of the tragic possibility of History repeating itself.

Clandestina

2024

Astrakan 79 poster
NR

1979. Flicking through pictures from a Soviet magazine, 15-year-old Martim dreams of building a new society. His radical communist parents send him to study at Astrakan for one year. In her new film, Catarina Mourão captures with tremendous precision the moment a middle-aged man passes his story on to his son, thus shedding the taboo of his ineffable experience.

Astrakan 79

2024

The Nothing Factory poster
6.0

One night, a group of workers realises that the administration is stealing machines and raw materials from their own factory. As they organize to survey the equipment and block the relocation of production, they are forced to stand at their posts with no work to do, as a form of retaliation, while negotiations over general lay-offs take place. The pressure leads to a breakdown of the workers along with the world around them.

The Nothing Factory

2017

The Nothing Factory poster
6.0

One night, a group of workers realises that the administration is stealing machines and raw materials from their own factory. As they organize to survey the equipment and block the relocation of production, they are forced to stand at their posts with no work to do, as a form of retaliation, while negotiations over general lay-offs take place. The pressure leads to a breakdown of the workers along with the world around them.

The Nothing Factory

2017

Dawn poster
NR

Maria starts to show signs of wanting to belong somewhere else: scales appear on her skin, roots appear on her legs, and she hears the sound of water - she dreams of being a fish. One day her daughter comes across her disappearance and reconstructs, through the memory of her gestures and meetings with her mother, a possible explanation for her escape.

Dawn

2021

Dawn poster
NR

Maria starts to show signs of wanting to belong somewhere else: scales appear on her skin, roots appear on her legs, and she hears the sound of water - she dreams of being a fish. One day her daughter comes across her disappearance and reconstructs, through the memory of her gestures and meetings with her mother, a possible explanation for her escape.

Dawn

2021

Setembro poster
NR

Mother and son move into a new house, a new city, a new story.

Setembro

2016

Setembro poster
NR

Mother and son move into a new house, a new city, a new story.

Setembro

2016

Campo poster
5.0

“Campo de Marte” (The Field of Mars) was in the ancient times Rome’s training arena for war. At the outskirts of Lisbon, “Campo” hosts today Europe’s largest military base. In this place military troops train fictional missions, astronomy aficionados observe the stars and a boy plays the piano for the wild deers lurking in the dark.

Campo

2018

Bulakna poster
NR

An observation of post-colonial economic relations through the intersecting trajectories of two Filipino women: one preparing to leave her native island to work as a domestic in Europe, the other to return for good.

Bulakna

2025

Latter-Day Saints poster
NR

They walk in pairs; they go door to door and visit the homes of those who wish to listen. They discuss matters of faith, family, demureness, religion and being. Their quest is personal, it is about proving themselves, an initiation that lasts for the two-year period they spend away from home. The Elders and the Sisters, young Mormon missionaries, leave their country, study a different language and culture and become immersed in a spirit of mission. They aspire to be role models for the perfect boys and girls.

Latter-Day Saints

2009

Latter-Day Saints poster
NR

They walk in pairs; they go door to door and visit the homes of those who wish to listen. They discuss matters of faith, family, demureness, religion and being. Their quest is personal, it is about proving themselves, an initiation that lasts for the two-year period they spend away from home. The Elders and the Sisters, young Mormon missionaries, leave their country, study a different language and culture and become immersed in a spirit of mission. They aspire to be role models for the perfect boys and girls.

Latter-Day Saints

2009

When the Land Runs Away poster
NR

Europe’s largest lithium mine is about to start operating in Trás-os-Montes, much to the dismay of the local inhabitants. Frederico Lopo induces an earthy sensuality and contrasts two geologies: that of mining prospection and machines, and that of roots and people.

When the Land Runs Away

2024

Reynard poster
NR

Cunning and slender, harassed and on the run, Reynard is a metaphor of a never ending obsession with each breath, each gesture, each thought. Marta seeks in the emptiness of her body a way to arrive to her inner essence, in an abstract search of a free spirit that might end in her own enclosure.

Reynard

2019

Reynard poster
NR

Cunning and slender, harassed and on the run, Reynard is a metaphor of a never ending obsession with each breath, each gesture, each thought. Marta seeks in the emptiness of her body a way to arrive to her inner essence, in an abstract search of a free spirit that might end in her own enclosure.

Reynard

2019

Reynard poster
NR

Cunning and slender, harassed and on the run, Reynard is a metaphor of a never ending obsession with each breath, each gesture, each thought. Marta seeks in the emptiness of her body a way to arrive to her inner essence, in an abstract search of a free spirit that might end in her own enclosure.

Reynard

2019

Tommy Guns poster
4.0

In 1974, after years of civil war, the Portuguese and their descendants fled the colony of Angola where groups working for independence gradually claim their territory back. A tribal girl discovers love and death when her path crosses that of a young Portuguese soldier. Meanwhile, another group of Portuguese soldiers is barracked inside an infinite wall from which they will have to escape once the past comes out of the grave to claim its long-awaited justice.

Tommy Guns

2023

Destiny Deluxe poster
7.0

Through a city that carries the weight of broken expectations and tough absencies, we follow the day of three young adults. César who got into a photoshoot by accident, Chloé who hopes to find a place to do her own work, and Helena who is back in her town for some days, only to find the living shadow of a loss.

Destiny Deluxe

2019

Lisbon Beat poster
NR

A journey through Lisbon’s suburbs through the lives of a handful of musicians establishing their place to exist in a city of complex identity struggles. Different generations and backgrounds meet, Angola to São Tome, Cabo Verde and Guine Bissau represented by old musicians and young producers.

Lisbon Beat

2019

Tudo o Que Imagino poster
9.0

End of adolescence, end of school, the last summer before joining the working world for a group of friends from the neighbourhood of Alcoitão, "BDA".

Tudo o Que Imagino

2017

Tudo o Que Imagino poster
9.0

End of adolescence, end of school, the last summer before joining the working world for a group of friends from the neighbourhood of Alcoitão, "BDA".

Tudo o Que Imagino

2017

Tudo o Que Imagino poster
9.0

End of adolescence, end of school, the last summer before joining the working world for a group of friends from the neighbourhood of Alcoitão, "BDA".

Tudo o Que Imagino

2017

Industrial Revolution poster
5.0

The Ave Valley is, for more than a century, a territory seized by an imposing industry. Amongst ruins and operating factories, we descend the river on a journey alongside the banks of the present, unveiling the marks of the past.

Industrial Revolution

2014

High Cities of Bone poster
6.3

Karlon, born in Pedreira dos Húngaros (a slum in the outskirts of Lisbon) and a pioneer of Cape Verdean creole rap, runs away from the housing project to which he had been relocated.

High Cities of Bone

2017

Shimmering Bodies poster
NR

The afternoon Jorge asks Mariana over for a weekend at his house in Leiria, she starts to see him in a whole new light. Unsure of her friend’s intentions, Mariana accepts his unexpected and baffling invitation.

Shimmering Bodies

2023

The End of the World poster
5.3

A 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

Suzanne Daveau poster
NR

This documentary portrait covers all the themes of Daveau’s rich life: from her field research and private life to feminism and the influence of the modern age on family relationships and science. Her passionate life is examined in detail in an inexhaustible series of stunning archival photos and home videos recorded by Daveau, and in voice-over she speaks openly, extensively and full of wonder about life and the world around her.

Suzanne Daveau

2019

No artwork available
NR

The leaflet promised a fantastic day of fun in a bus tour that would take us sightseeing around the country. The trip, only for people over twenty-five, would also include a delicious lunch, presents and a “demonstration of items for your home and health”. An outing not to be missed, said the pamphlet.

Excursion

2007

Other Letters or The Invented Love poster
NR

Other Letters or The Invented Love deals with the passionate book New Portuguese Letters, a collective work written by the authors known as the Three Marias in the 70s, as a pretext for a short cinematographic inventory about relationships and affection between people today and always.

Other Letters or The Invented Love

2012

Salitre poster
10.0

A short time has passed. Both arrived to a point of no return, a break is the only way out. One of them has to take the first step. This morning both decide to leave, definitely, without the other realizing it. The house remains empty.

Salitre

2005

Salitre poster
10.0

A short time has passed. Both arrived to a point of no return, a break is the only way out. One of them has to take the first step. This morning both decide to leave, definitely, without the other realizing it. The house remains empty.

Salitre

2005

Outside the Oranges Are Blooming poster
NR

Somewhere in the mountains, a man lives alone in a disappearing village. Wandering through the misty nature, interpreting among the walls of his dark houses, on the very ground with his destiny to belong to a world that has been rejected.

Outside the Oranges Are Blooming

2019

The City and The Sun poster
4.3

A woman and two dogs inside a city house. She rediscovers herself in daily gestures and in the remembrance of whom has left. The sun blinds her, it becomes fierce, and like death, she cannot look it in the eye - only to the shadows around her

The City and The Sun

2011

Ama-San poster
6.8

A dive, the midday sunlight filtering down through the water. The air in her lungs has to last until she can dislodge the abalone. Dives like these have been carried out in Japan for over 2000 years by the Ama-San.

Ama-San

2016

Trading Cities poster
5.0

This film tries to make a silent record of the arrival of an economy of scale, its flows, and its effects upon the transformation of an island’s physical and human landscape.

Trading Cities

2014

Ave Rara poster
NR

They all say that you killed an Angel. Who says that ? They. It’s not an Angel. It isn’t ? No. It’s a rare bird, just like you and me.

Ave Rara

2019

Searching Nafta poster
7.2

Shooting on 16mm film in Mozambique, director Ico Costa explores the textures of human behaviour as he follows young men who wonder what lies beyond their immediate surroundings. In the fragments of conversations captured in the Maputo market, a recording studio and on coconut trees, we find daily routines and tedium lead to chit-chat on desire, money and hope. In the interplay between performance and document, poetry emerges from fleeting everyday moments.

Searching Nafta

2017

Tiger Bay poster
NR

The history and myth of a ghost island off the SW African coast are told through a dystopian parable, in which a character undergoes brainwashing to escape the burden of memory in a world he no longer relates to.

Tiger Bay

2025