The Knife and the Sword

What was supposed to be a documentary to show the progressive nature of Belgium in regards to its immigration policy, turned out to be something completely the opposite. Struck by what he saw, the director decided to take the funds issued to him by the Belgian government to make a film which showed life as it really was in the mining region of Borinage. The promise of a better life for the immigrants, which the Belgian government wanted to show, was nowhere to be found in this film. Instead, we look in on reality of life in Borinage, with staggering unemployment, and a feeling by many of displacement and homesickness.

A family of four persons go to a remote village to bury their dead father there according to his will. But no one of them has heard anything about this village or visited it before.

Upon his brother's death, a recording artist returns to his hometown to sell the family farm.

A woman celebrates her 40th birthday by having her three best friends come and stay with her and her husband for a long weekend. This woman has been in a wheelchair for the past two years, and it has led her to isolate herself inside of her home. Her husband stands by her as he lives with the guilt of causing the car accident which put her in the wheelchair. Over the course of the three day celebration, it is revealed that everyone is struggling with their own lives and identities. When one best friend makes a terrible mistake and betrays the woman on her birthday, everyone is immediately and uncomfortably forced into looking at their own lives and their own limitations.

Ensign Joaquim José da Silva Xavier disseminates the ideal of making Brazil independent. The movement, called Inconfidência Mineira, ended after Silvério Reis's betrayal and the consequent hanging of Tiradentes.