Lucas, a 28-year-old Brazilian immigrant in Lisbon, survives by working as a delivery driver while studying Business Administration online. He dreams of opening his own café—a place that would finally be his, a foundation for a stable life. His days are split between exhausting deliveries, late-night study sessions, and phone calls with his mother back home, to whom he sends part of his meager earnings.
When Lucas receives an interview at RapidTransit, a licensed company able to sponsor visas, it seems his chance for stability has finally arrived. He sells his motorcycle, the tool of his survival, in hopes of embracing this new chapter. But on the same day he celebrates his hiring, immigration laws change—suddenly limiting the number of immigrants companies can employ. His dream collapses before it even begins.
As political speeches broadcast promises of justice, Lucas’s reality becomes more precarious. His Angolan roommate Domingos warns him of the growing crackdown, but Lucas clings to optimism. The wooden bird he carries—a carving from home—remains his talisman of hope. Yet the city that once held promise begins to close in. Police raids spread through immigrant communities, and tension mounts as Lucas realizes he may be next.
One night, while riding the iconic Tram 28E—the same tram tourists flock to in search of “the real Lisbon”—Lucas finds himself cornered by immigration agents. As he clutches his wooden bird and speaks with his mother on the phone, the line between dream and nightmare blurs. His fate remains uncertain, but the story echoes far beyond him, reflecting the invisible lives of countless others.
28E: Last Stop is a drama that confronts the immigrant experience not through sensationalism, but through intimacy. It portrays Lisbon as a city of contrasts—beautiful yet exclusionary, vibrant yet hostile for those who sustain it. The film asks: in a city that sells itself to the world, who gets to belong?
Inspired by social cinema, the film follows Lucas’s journey through the streets of Lisbon on the historic 28E tram, transforming the city into both character and metaphor for his own precarious condition.
