Xavier

Xavier returns to Lisbon after doing his compulsory military service and tries to give his life some meaning: he visits his old orphanage, meets some his old friends, attends a trial at the courthouse. Above all, he sees his godfather Alves, who had taken him in when he was a rebellious and stubborn adolescent, and who now tells him where he can find his mother. Xavier does everything possible to better his life and that of the others, but there seem to be forces moving against him that he can’t stop. Xavier flees into voluntary exile and becomes a passive spectator of his own existence. Until a change brings him back to Lisbon and gives him back the hope of finally finding his own life. – Toronto Film Festival