“Bitoques & Imperiais”, series that celebrates the foreign gaze on Portugal gains

Producer seeks immigrant stories on themes such as the routine of digital nomads and students, football, making friends in another country, the fitness universe, the pet world, and nightlife

Following the success of the first season, which surpassed 200,000 views in just one month and attracted 16,000 subscribers to the 7800 Productions’ YouTube channel, the series “Bitoques & Imperiais” will have a second season. Created by Polish Lukasz Gieranczyk (executive producer) and Brazilian Thiago Yoshinaga (director) and launched in September this year, the production portrays the experience of immigrants in Portugal, a group that represents about 10% of the country’s population (according to AIMA data).

“I think the audience connected with the stories because we were able to show, in a light-hearted and relaxed way, different perspectives, always maintaining a very realistic view of the lives of foreigners in Portugal. As in the first season, we will invite four immigrants who fit the theme discussed for each episode. Not just Brazilians, but foreigners from other countries living here. We will also listen to Portuguese people for certain themes,” says Lukasz Gieranczyk, who was born in Warsaw but speaks Portuguese fluently because he spent some seasons in Brazil during his childhood and adolescence and lived in Lisbon in his youth, accompanying his diplomat parents.

The second season of “Bitoques & Imperiais” is expected to begin filming in December. Among the highlights are themes such as the lifestyle of digital nomads, the experiences of foreign students, the role of football in integration, and how friendships are formed in a new land. Other episodes will explore the fitness universe in Portugal, the growth of dog-friendly spaces, and the various options for nightlife in the country. And as in the first season, the conversation ends in a Portuguese restaurant, with bitoques and imperiais, the preferences of the duo of creators who ended up giving the project its name.

For 2025, in addition to the new season of “Bitoques & Imperiais,” 7800 Productions plans to invest in new releases of original audiovisual projects.

“When I returned to live in Portugal at the beginning of 2023, I brought with me the desire to develop original productions. The creation of 7800 Productions was the first step, and after the excellent start with the series, we have many new things ahead,” reveals Lukasz Gieranczyk.

ABOUT LUKASZ GIERANCZYK

Son of diplomats, Polish Lukasz Gieranczyk was born in Warsaw and moved to Rio de Janeiro at 8 months old. Between back-and-forth trips to Poland and a two-year stint in Colombia, he experienced other periods in Brazil three times during his childhood and adolescence, which is why he speaks Portuguese fluently. After finishing his degree in Public Relations at the University of São Paulo (USP), he studied film in Canada. At the end of the course, in 2007, he enrolled at the renowned Warsaw Film School in his hometown. He was accepted, but a trip to visit his parents, who were then living in Lisbon, changed his plans. Enchanted by the city and the tropical climate in the heart of Europe, he decided not to return to Poland. In Portugal, he began working in communication and advertising for Millennium Bank. He learned a lot about commercial production. Two years later, he received an invitation to return to Warsaw and work at a small online marketing agency, a growing market at the time. With the advantage of speaking Portuguese and Spanish fluently and having extensive knowledge in online marketing, he was invited to projects for companies interested in expanding to Brazil, Portugal, and Spain.

During a holiday season on the coast of São Paulo, Lukasz Gieranczyk discovered how difficult it was to purchase bus tickets. Thus, the insight came that he could combine his experience in digital marketing, work at a Polish tourism agency, and all his knowledge about Brazilian culture to create a business. With an initial investment of R$ 450,000 (about 73,000 euros), using his resources and those of a single partner, fellow Pole Jaroslaw Piasecki, Lukasz created, in 2013, Quero Passagem, one of the first platforms for selling bus tickets in Brazil. The project was so successful that nearly ten years later, the company that started very small now has 150 employees and is a leader in the corporate sector, in addition to being the second-largest platform for selling bus tickets to the end consumer, B2C.

Back in Portugal in August 2023, this time with his own family, Lukasz decided to create a new company. The success of his business in Brazil gave him the confidence to invest in a passion that had been set aside for a few years: audiovisual. This is how 7800 Productions was born, which debuted with the launch of the series “Bitoques e Imperiais” in September 2024. A second season is already confirmed for the first half of 2025.

ABOUT THIAGO YOSHINAGA

Born in São Paulo in 1980, Thiago Yoshinaga studied Social Sciences at the University of São Paulo (USP) and Journalism at PUC-SP. He worked as a journalist, writing about economics and the financial market. He decided to work in audiovisual after directing his first documentary in 2001 about the punk rock scene in São Paulo. After that, he took a break from his career to study video. He took production courses in London and courses on directing actors and screenwriting at the International School of Cinema – San Antonio de Los Baños in Cuba. He started his 18-year career in video as an editor for educational programs and commercials, then opened his own production company, where he produced documentaries, educational programs, and commercials. After living two years in Bogotá, he moved to Lisbon at the beginning of 2023. “Bitoques & Imperiais” was his first work as a director in Portugal.

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