Raul Ruiz's critically acclaimed "Mysteries of Lisbon"(2010) put Maria João Bastos on the map of the European and International cinema and brought her roles in films like Valeria Sarmiento's "Lines of Wellington"(2012) or Michael Sturminger's "The Casanova Variations"(2014) starring John Malkovich. But long before that, Maria João Bastos was one of the most acclaimed and respected actresses of Portugal and Brazil. She started her career in television in the late 90's in TV series, telenovelas and TV movies of great success in Portugal. Maria João starred also in several theater plays and soon she was invited by Brazilian television giant TV Globo to move to Brazil and be the star of the worldwide Brazilian successful telenovelas. She live in Rio de Janeiro for five years and returned to Portugal where she continued working in some of the most prestigious television productions in the country (the TV series "Equador" shot in 2008 in four continents, "Sedução" (2010), "Destinos Cruzados" (2013), the series "O Bairro" (2014) for example) and cinema, where she was directed by veterans like Ruy Guerra or Fernando Lopes and new generation talents like André Badalo or Artur Serra Araújo.