Portuguese #YearOverHere

Resources to help you immerse yourself in the language!

Cultural events across the UK 

January 2015

22nd Jan:  Criolo in concert, Village Underground, London

Brazilian hip hop pioneer, rapper, composer and urban poet Criolo plays his first London show in 2 years. His first album, released in 2011, gained him awards from Rolling Stone and MTV Brazil.

23rd Jan: Art from Pernambuco, Embassy of Brazil, London

The Embassy of Brazil presents works from 17 artists from the north-eastern state of Pernambuco, well known for its cultural dynamism. The exhibition will bring together four generations of artists, spanning five decades.

27th Jan: CineClub - Democracia em Preto e Blanco, Embassy of Brazil, London

The Brazilian Embassy's cinema club returns with this 2014 film about the struggle for the end of the dictatorship in mid-1980s Brazil.

29th Jan: Anglo-Portuguese ensemble of up-and-coming musicians, Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory Church, London

This will be the debut performance of the ensemble, consisting (on this occasion) of string players. The performance will feature works by the Portuguese composer Braga Santos, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings and Fantasia Upon One Note by Purcell.

30th Jan: Love Songs from Brazil: Marcelo Bratke & Gabriela Di Laccio, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Soprano Gabriela Di Laccio and pianist Marcelo Bratke illuminate Brazilian music of the 20th century, taking on both classical and popular pieces.

February 2015

1st - 29th Feb:Book Club - Passion according to G.H. by Clarice Lispector, Embassy of Brazil, London

Are we all slaves of passion? A lyrical narrative of a seemingly trivial but shocking incident with G.H.'s mundane maid's room leads to a shocking realisation.

3rd -24th Feb: Rodrigo Sassi Exhibition - In Between, Gallery Nosco, London

This will be Brazilian artist Rodrigo Sassi's first exhibition in the UK. 

17th Feb: Pitt Hornung - the Rise and Fall of an Anglo-Portuguese enterprise in the 20th Century, The Cavalry and Guards Club, London

Bernard Hornung will deliver this talk on his great-grandfather Pitt Hornung, African pioneer, sugar planter, man of business and sportsman who was equally at home in Portugal, Africa and England. 

March 2015

4th-6th March: Forró Festival, London

Marking its 4th anniversary on the London scene, Forró will be back with 3 jam-packed days of workshops and 3 tremendous nights of parties til the small hours! 

11th March: CineClub showing of 'O Palhaço' ('The Clown'), Brazilian Embassy, London

O Palhaço follows a father/son clown duo as they travel with the Circo Esperança around the valleys and mountains of south-western Brazil. Free entry.

25th March: CineClub showing of 'Quanto Vale ou é por quilo?' (How much is it worth - or is it by kilo?), Brazilian Embassy, London

This free adaptation of a Machado de Assis short story traces a parallel between life in Brazil during the slavery period and life in modern Brazil.

April 2015

8th April: CineClub showing of 'Linha de Passe', Brazilian Embassy, London

This award-winning drama is the story of four brothers from a poor family who need to fight to follow their dreams.

16th April: Book Club - 'Iracema, the Honey Lips' by José de Alencar, Brazilian Embassy, London

This truly heartbreaking story is set on the beaches of Ceará in the 16th century. The novel is available in both English and Portuguese.

22nd April: CineClub showing of 'Olhos Azuis' (Blue Eyes), Brazilian Embassy, London

On his last day at the job, a U.S. immigration officer holds Latin passengers in a room of a New York airport to conduct an interrogation that takes a surprising and tragic course.

May 2015

5th May: Talks on Portuguese language variation, Senate House, London

Experts in Portuguese will lead a series of discussions about variations within the Portugues language.

5th May: Lucas Santtana in concert, Southbank Centre, London 

Lucas Santtana is at the heart of Brazilian pop's new sound. The genre is currently undergoing a revolution, with the influence of Western pop and rock replaced by the pulse of Africa and rhythms snatched from Latin America's new post-dictatorial identity.

13th May: Brazil: What Happened?, Old Anatomy Lecture Theatre, King's College Strand Campus, London

Alex Ellis, British Ambassador to Brazil, will talk about how and why Brazil has gone from being a celebrated world exemplar of a 'rising power' to an emerging country seemingly engulfed by economic and political crises.

19th May: What's the role of Brazil in the international political chessboard of the 21st century?, King's Building, King's College, London

The presentation reviews Brazil’s pursuit for international insertion by: discussing its search for new partners; presenting an overview of the historical, cultural, and political features that render it the most Western of the emerging nations; and analyzing its participation in the management of two major international crises, the Honduran constitutional crisis and the Iranian nuclear crisis.

June 2015

3rd June: Brazil CineClub - 'SIMONAL, NINGUÉM SABE O DURO QUE DEI' (SIMONAL, NO ONE KNOWS HOW TOUGH IT WAS), Embassy of Brazil, London

Wilson Simonal was a famous Brazilian singer during the 1960s and early 1970s – but is equally well known for having been accused of acting as an informer for the military dictatorship. The accusations led to a 20-year boycott of his music on the part of Brazil’s artists and intellectuals, and to the collapse of his career. This documentary contains images from Simonal’s early shows and clips from old TV programmes – including rare scenes and duets with Elis Regina and Sarah Vaughan – along with contributions from people who knew him closely, such as Pele, Chico Anysio, Toni Tornado and Nelson Motta. Simonal’s second wife Sandra Cerqueira and their children Simoninha and Max de Castro also appear, recounting the last years of the singer’s life and his struggle to clear his name.

11th June: Fabio Zanon Guitar Recital, Embassy of Brazil, London

Fabio Zanon is one of Brazil's leading classical guitarists and a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music. He will perform a programme of music by composers including Schumann, Ponce, Bach, Mignone, Savio and Almeida.

17th June: Brazil CineClub - 'ESTÔMAGO' (STOMACH), Embassy of Brazil, London

'Estômago' is an adult fable about power, sex and … cooking. Raimundo Nonato, our protagonist, is a chef. We find him preparing food in a bar, then in an Italian restaurant – and then in prison. Through cooking he learns how to get by in a society divided metaphorically into those who eat and those who get eaten. Along the way he learns that the cook must also get his share of food – and that only he knows which bits taste best.

28th June: Marcos Valle in concert, Ronnie Scotts Jazz Bar, London

Marcos Valle is one of the major songwriters of Brazilian Popular Music and frequently represents Brazil at major events around the world.

July 2015

1st July: Caetano Veloso & Gilberto Gil in concert, 45 Queen Caroline Street, London

An exclusive London concert that will reunite two of Brazil's most charasmatic singer-songwriters.

August 2015

5th August: Brazil CineClub - 'Vestido de Noiva' (The Wedding Dress), Embassy of Brazil, London

In 1942, in Rio de Janeiro, the twenty-five years old Alaíde is run over by a car while crossing Carioca Street. She arrives in a coma at the hospital, and while being submitted to an emergency surgery, she recalls her life since her family moved to a house that used to be a brothel, mixing hallucination, reality and memory. In her surrealistic daydream, she meets Madame Clessy, the owner of the bordello who died in 1905, killed by her seventeen-year-old lover, and she envisions a passionate and tragic love story involving her husband Pedro, her jealous sister Lúcia and herself, and how Madame Clessy died.

8th August: Brazil Day 2015, Trafalgar Square, London

Brazil Day 2015 is an early opportunity to celebrate the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.To begin the 12-month countdown, the Ministry of Sport of Brazil and EMBRATUR – the Brazilian Tourism Board – have joined forces with the Embassy of Brazil in the United Kingdom to organize another Brazilian festival in Trafalgar Square, a free event celebrating Brazil’s culture and its passion for sports. Attractions will include beach volleyball in the square, a beach volleyball fitness class, a forró flash mob and a street carnival bloco which everyone will be welcome to follow through Trafalgar Square.

19th August: Brazil CineClub - 'Praia do Futuro' (Futuro Beach), Embassy of Brazil, London

When Brazilian lifeguard Donato saves German biker Konrad from drowning, the pair immediately form a strong sexual bond. Their passionate affair intensifies, and Donato decides to leave his mother and younger brother Ayrton behind, to start a new life with Konrad in Berlin. Years later, Ayrton arrives in Berlin looking for answers. His unexpected arrival forces all three men to confront their past.

September 2015

23rd Sept: Brazil CineClub Special - 'Vestido de Noiva' (Wedding Dress), Embassy of Brazil, London

Vestido de Noiva is an adaptation of one of the most renowned plays in Brazilian modern theatre, written by the country’s most acclaimed and controversial playwright, Nelson Rodrigues (1912-1980). As usual, you'll be presented with a shot of cachaça on arrival!

24th - 27th Sept: Rio+ Film Festival, Barbican, London

A dynamic showcase of Rio, Brazil's most vibrant city, captured on film, from the silent film Limite, to Fernando Meirelles' City of God