Best Portuguese crime movies
A curated collection of popular crime movies from Portugal.
Call Girl (2007)
Call Girl (2007)
A powerful entrepreneur wants to build an exclusive resort hotel in Villanova, but he discovers the location he has in mind is protected by local land-use regulations. He hires Maria, a beautiful and elegant prostitute, to seduce the mayor, leaving him open to blackmail if he won't give the entrepreneur what he wants. Maria has no trouble twisting Meireles around her finger, but police detectives Madeira and Neves get wind of the plan and set out to expose the plot...
The Last Time I Saw Macao (2012)
The Last Time I Saw Macao (2012)
Part memoir, part city symphony, part noir-ish B-movie adventure, the new feature from critically acclaimed film-making duo João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata (To Die Like a Man) is a sensual, shape-shifting ode to one of the world's most mythic, alluring and exoticized cities.
O Táxi Nº 9297 (1927)
O Táxi Nº 9297 (1927)
The story of this film is based on actual facts, the murder of actress Maria Alves, and the investigation that ensued, covered by Reinaldo Ferreira himself. Ferreira also wrote a novel based on the same facts.
Mustang (2000)
Mustang (2000)
Two sons dream of the return of their father who left fifteen years earlier, and all this time without any sign of life...
Zona J (1998)
Zona J (1998)
Tó, a black boy from Zona J, a tough neighborhood in Lisbon, falls in love with a white girl, Carla. Tó dreams of living in Angola and taking Carla with him. However, the reality the two teens are in complicates their plans...
Veneno Cura (2008)
Veneno Cura (2008)
In oPorto there is a club, Imperatriz, where everything is permitted. A moment in which all intersect in the dark night.
Tudo Isto é Fado (2004)
Tudo Isto é Fado (2004)
Shup up in dead-end lives with dreams larger than life, two inseparable friends in their thirties decide to take their fates in hand. Nevertheless, a woman a « fatale » one, gets them away from their path. And the three of them – two others will quickly join them- find themselves involved in a strange case, that of a fake painting robbery. Who said crime is not worth?
Dina and Django (1983)
Dina and Django (1983)
Dina (Maria Santiago) is a teenager brought up by her grandmother, employed as a housekeeper for a fairly well-off family. Since Dina only has her grandmother, she spends her time fantasizing about her life and reading comic-book love stories -- activities that do nothing to improve her dim perspective of reality. Due to these handicaps and her own inexperience, she gets involved with Django (Luis Lucas), a shady character who decides to use her as bait to attract men and then rob them. One day when both are in a taxi with robbery in mind, the driver gets suspicious so Django shoots him, and so does Dina. She escapes and runs away -- though it seems like she has learned too little too late. This story unfolds against a time of upheaval in Portugal (mid-1970s) when the military government is formulating a constitution and social changes are happening everywhere.
One Hundred Times Lost (1973)
One Hundred Times Lost (1973)
Artur is in Lisbon for his holidays, wonders aimlessly, and is picked up by Rui, a young man who is into marketing and advertising. Joana is in Lisbon for holidays, but also trying to escape from a mysterious, dark passion. Artur and Joana come together, find common roots in their rural background.
Sorte Nula (2004)
Sorte Nula (2004)
Alberto is planning the ultimate romantic escape, but before he can catch the airplane he will endure the creepiest day of his life.
Adelaide (2018)
Adelaide (2018)
In the most anticipated interview of the year, sisters Adelaide, Carolina and Julia Paixão come together with their mother Anita - to recount the events that led to one of the most controversial crimes ever committed in Portugal.
Here on Earth (1993)
Here on Earth (1993)
Miguel (Luis Miguel Cintra) is lucky that his income will only level off if he neglects his business as a financier, and his wife and family will be well supported. Why? Because he has begun hearing noises that no one else hears, noises that bother him a great deal, and that make it impossible for him to bear human society. His wife (Jessica Weiss) is thoroughly put out by this radically changed behavior in her formerly good husband, but though she considers leaving him, she stays by his side. Deep in the mountains, Cecelia (Rita Dias), a devout, pure young cowherd, has been brutally raped by an old man. Her boyfriend (Pedro Hestnes) has killed the rapist, and fled the area. As a result of the rape, Cecelia is pregnant. One day, while driving in the mountains, Miguel gives Cecelia's boyfriend a ride. The two of them chance upon her sitting amid the rocks with her infant baby.
A Vida É Bela.?! (1982)
A Vida É Bela.?! (1982)
Hipólito is a self-made man, who went up in life in devious ways, and used for profit the social turmoil when Portugal changed from a monarchy into a republic, and then to a military regime. Finally, he is forced into exile. Back in 1935 to family, friends, and lovers, he is in a mix-mesh of lies, and scheming, again.
Name Above Title (2020)
Name Above Title (2020)
The quiet life of a serial killer in Lisbon is disrupted when an unusual incident suddenly turns him into a social media star.
Slicer (2016)
Slicer (2016)
A man that dismembers bodies finds his life in danger when one of the corpses isn't really dead.
Experience in Horror (1987)
Experience in Horror (1987)
A horror film based on a book by Dick Haskins.
Guru das Sete Cidades (1972)
Guru das Sete Cidades (1972)
An unhappily married woman becomes the mistress to a sleaze-ball who introduces her to a group of satanists who are willing to kill her rich husband.
Rafa (2012)
Rafa (2012)
Rafa is a 13 years old kid concerned with his mother, held in a police station for driving without a license. The director shows a day in the life of a teenager who lives on a problematic area and discovers that her mother was arrested because of an automobile accident.
The Immortals (2003)
The Immortals (2003)
Every year, four ex-soldiers who call themselves "Os Imortais" ("The Immortals"), get together with four women to celebrate their war deeds and remember the old days, back in the war. On the summer of 1985, tired of their monotonous lives, they decide to rob a bank. Joaquim Malarranha, a chief inspector from the local police force who is about to retire, crosses their path and chooses to spend his last days of duty trying to solve the robbery. But as he carries on with his investigation, he discovers more than he could have ever imagined...
In the Darkness of the Night (2004)
In the Darkness of the Night (2004)
A disturbing film about the Portuguese underworld of prostitution.
Bairro (2013)
Bairro (2013)
Diana was born and raised in the neighborhood of Estrela Polar, lost hers parents when she was a child and leads a band of criminals who negotiates for drugs, money laundering, weapons, paintings, jewellery and tobacco.
Ballad of Dog Beach (1987)
Ballad of Dog Beach (1987)
In Portugal, in the 60s, the corpse of a man appears on Dog's Beach. The corpse is identified as the major Dantas, a man wanted by authorities after his escape from a military prison where he was awaiting trial for insurrection.
Ornament and Crime (2015)
Ornament and Crime (2015)
I am the double of the shadow of my own image. An allegory that occupies my place. This is my act of contrition. Beyond good and evil, I stand as an equation: Its result cannot be manipulated By morals or ethics. In mathematics there is no place for beliefs Just as life and death Are a certain fate.
The Glass Cell (1978)
The Glass Cell (1978)
A man is wrongfully imprisoned for five years. Once out, he hears about his wife's supposed adventures outside of their marriage and becomes increasingly jealous.
Rending (2001)
Rending (2001)
A philosophy-obsessed serial rapist stalks a university campus in broad daylight.
Crimes of Diogo Alves (1911)
Crimes of Diogo Alves (1911)
Diogo Alves is a Spanish fugitive that comes to the Portuguese capital terrorizing the inhabitants by his cut-throat methods against rich and poor people alike. He attacks the women launderers on the Lisbon Aqueduct and throws the bodies over the high wall, and assaults homes with his large band of criminals. Eventually arrested, he, his female companion and his henchmen are condemned to death by the court.
The Crime of Aldeia Velha (1964)
The Crime of Aldeia Velha (1964)
Joana lives in a small and remote village where people are very primitive and religious. When accidents start happening that involves her, people slowly start believing that she is possessed by the devil.
Miami (2015)
Miami (2015)
A teenage girl's dream of becoming famous turns into a dangerous obsession.
Crime at the Little Star Pension (1990)
Crime at the Little Star Pension (1990)
Neves and his wife Celia are the owners and managers of the 'Little Star Pension', a familiar hotel that caters to bourgeois family and would-be actors, instead of the ill-reputed 'Good-Night Pension' (just across the narrow street), where gigolos, whores, and criminals of all sorts may go for a quick encounter. However, not all is well among the ten residents of 'Little Star Pension': each dialogue line from every hotel guest is evidence that he, or her, has a reason (actually, more than one) to hate Neves - to the point of wishing him dead. Carelessness (or devious intention) by one party will provide the means; another, will create the propitious moment; yet another, and then the rest of them will create the festive New Year's Eve occasion - to do with Neves forever! Obviously, only the famous world private-eye Hércules Pirôt can solve the crime... for which he is called by phone, even before the deed is done.