French actor Alfonso visits the Portuguese village where his father once left. He is accompagnied by the film director Manoel who hereby returns to the places of his childhood. Together with two other actors who serve as translators they make it to the remote village and meet the estranged kin.
In Lisbon, during the António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo dictatorship, Pereira (Marcello Mastroianni), a journalist that works in the culture section of a newspaper, discovers the real dark side of the regime when he meets and helps an anti-fascist young man Monteiro Rossi (Stefano Dionisi).
Nakaura of Julian, a priest of the Society of Jesus, was one of four young ambassadors sent to Rome by the Jesuits in 1538, as proof that Japan had converted to Christianity.
The film is set in Lisbon, and tells the story of a day in the life of Rita and Paulo, a Portuguese young couple of the 90's, belonging to the first generation of Portuguese to grow up inside the European Union. The fast changing city around them makes them wish to break with all traditions and live the day the get married (only civil marriage) like it is an ordinary day. However, for some reason Rita wants to be absolutely sure Paulo loves her and decides to cut her long black hair short before the ceremony. Rita and Paulo still get married, but Rita's haircut would drastically and unexpectedly change their relationship.
The film tells a story of Mariana, a nurse who leaves Lisbon to accompany an immigrant worker in a comatose sleep on his trip home to Cape Verde. The devoted Portuguese nurse took a journey only to find herself lost in abstract drama.
Éloge de la folie à travers les tribulations de M. Jean de Dieu, homme paisible et glacier de son état qui collectionne à ses moments perdus des poils pubiens féminins qu'il classe dans un précieux album qu'il appelle "le Livre des pensées".
Dans un asile d'aliénés, loin de la Divine Comédie de Dante, des personnes se croisent, hallucinées ou lucides, rejouant des textes littéraires ou philosophiques. Certains se prennent pour des figures bibliques, Adam et Ève, Jésus, Lazare, Marie, d'autres pour des personnages de romans, Raskolnikov, Ivan Karamazov, ou encore Frédéric Nietzsche... Oliveira développe là une réflexion sur le temps présent et ses valeurs.