SYNOPSIS

​

Luísa, a 45-year-old Portuguese architect, is about to face significant changes in her life. In Lisbon, amidst work dilemmas, relationships, and the pressures of a fast-paced daily life, she is forced to confront her own identity while clearing out the house of her recently deceased mother. Luísa revisits childhood memories of her parents’ botanical expeditions in Brazil, which she accompanied as a child, a process that makes her want to reclaim that time and place. Pausing her life in Portugal, she travels across the ocean to meet her father. In an intense physical and emotional journey, Luísa transforms, allowing herself to rediscover and unleash her true essence.

DIRECTOR'S BIOGRAPHY

​

Leonor Noivo studied Photography and Architecture before joining ESTC in Lisbon, where she specialized in Editing and Directing in 2004. She completed the Documentary Course at Ateliers Varan in 2006 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. She worked as a script supervisor, screenwriter, and assistant director in fiction films and documentaries, collaborating with various directors such as João Pedro Rodrigues, João Salaviza, João Nicolau, Marília Rocha, Pedro Pinho, Tiago Hespanha, João Vladimiro, João Botelho, Carlos Conceição, Inês Oliveira, Filipa Reis, and João Miller, among others. She is a co-founder of TERRATREME Films, a filmmaker collective established in 2008. Her films have been screened at numerous international festivals such as Locarno, Rotterdam, Viennale, FidMarseille, Clermont-Ferrand, Recife, Uruguay, Ficunam, Cairo, Tangier, and Macau, among others, earning several awards. "Luísa" is her debut fiction feature film.