"This Side of Resurrection" is an independent surf movie about Rafael, a surfer who has lived as a monk.
Prepare to watch a different surf film. Joaquim Sapinho, a Portuguese movie director, has developed a story about family life, religion, and, simultaneously, the passion for surfing and waves.
Inês and Rafael, a sister and a brother, have lived through their parents' divorce.
Since then, Rafael has gone away to live as a monk and not bumming and surfing around Australia as she has believed.
While Rafael tries to discover himself and his relationship with God, Inês attempts to establish a connection with the brother, as she is told he is back at the Guincho Beach surfing waves.
Rafael is an ex-surf champion who tests his life's limits by getting himself into the most dangerous waves every day.
When the two siblings meet, Guincho makes them come together in a promise of paradise on earth, as it was the last place where their family lived together and in happiness.
But Inês is surprised one day when she finds her brother looking fixedly at the Serra de Sintra mountain range, where the Convent of the Capuchos was once his refuge.
She fears having brought back to him the memories of the separation of their parents. Rafael is in a crisis of faith.
When he disappears one day, Inês knows he has gone back to the convent and starts doing what she can to bring him back to her.
"This Side of Resurrection," from the original Portuguese title "Deste Lado da Ressurreição," was considered one of the best films of 2011 by Film Comment Magazine.