Mariana is a young woman looking to fulfill the dream she was once committed with when she left her parents’ house to live with Alex, in Lisbon. When he leaves to New York, she cannot bear what has been left for her. Even though the return seemed unthinkable, she goes back to the North. The burden of failure and the crossing of a legendary river, lead her to an ancient tale: once you cross the river of forgetfulness, your own past will also be forgotten. Alex returns while she is searching for a new setting for herself. He no longer believes in this country. She has gotten closer to the place where everything has started for her. He will leave. She will not return.

From a certain idea of Rousseauian rural purity, “Colmeal” is settled in the small homonymous village located in Riba-Côa, also known as ghost village, due to the effects of the rural exodus and the inland desertification. In an allegorical way, quite worked on the natural elements and the sound elements, the film tells the story of a young man who lives isolated and who obsessed by a woman who comes from the city to spend her summer vacation. Gradually, the young man tries to overcome the inability to deal with his emotions, seeking to discover himself, emotionally and sexually. Márcio Laranjeira and Sérgio Brás d’Almeida are debutants in Curtas Vila do Conde and propose a return to the themes of growing pains and transition to adulthood, with young people trying to find their place in the world and to define their personality, especially in context of social and loving relationships.

Tradition says that on 13 June, Saint Anthony’s Day (the national holiday of Lisbon’s patron), lovers must offer small vases of basil with paper carnations and flags with popular poems as a token of their love.