The national competitive section of this edition of IndieLisboa does not reach the record of nine titles (it happened in 2022), but almost. There are eight Portuguese feature films in competition at the film festival that will be held from May 23 to June 2 in various venues in Lisbon. Three of them are world premieres, others arrive in Portugal after a consolidated international tour.
It is a mix of generations, between young directors and established names, but above all, the organization describes, it is “a particularly vibrant group of filmmakers and a gesture of permanent questioning of history—and the country—through explicit artistic expression.” ”. And yet, there is a lot to say about the works that make up the national competition for the 21st anniversary of the Lisbon International Film Festival, which will occupy the Ideal and São Jorge cinemas, the Portuguese Cinemateca, Culturgest, Fernando Lopes Cinema, and the Piscina Penha de France.
Three world premieres stand out above all. It is the case that bankby Margarida Cardoso, a Portuguese director who moves between documentary and fiction and works on themes that intersect her personal history with themes from the recent history of Portugal, such as the colonial war and the revolution. bank It follows a doctor (Carlotto Cotta) who, in the 1970s, goes to a farm with slaves in Sao Tome and Principe. Beatriz Batarda, Albano Jerónimo and Gonçalo Waddington make up the cast. He also makes his senior debut Gold and the world, by Ico Costa. Shot in Mozambique and in co-production with France, the film focuses on a young couple in a small Mozambican town. To escape precariousness, one of them undertakes a journey across the country to the gold mines.
The third world premiere in the national Indie competition is the new film by Rita Nunes, which triumphs crooked lines (2019). The best of the worlds “It is a film about scientists, about a possible catastrophe that will occur in Lisbon, but in the future, in 2027,” actress Madalena Almeida told Observador last summer. It is a drama about a couple of scientists (actors Miguel Nunes and Sara Barros Leitão) who are faced with data that points to a very high probability that a large earthquake could hit Lisbon. Scientists are undecided about alerting the population about the possible impending tragedy.
From the Berlin festival comes hands on fire, title by Margarida Gil and the only Portuguese film present at this year’s Berlinale, in February. Produced by Ar de Filmes, the feature film is freely inspired by the work turning the screw, by Henry James, to tell the story of a young director who, upon finishing a documentary about great stately homes in the Douro, discovers a century-old house full of secrets. Carlo Chatrian, artistic director of the Berlinale, presented the film as “a personal tribute” to the cinema of the 73-year-old Portuguese director, who made her directorial debut in 1987 with the feature film Faithful and true relationship. It’s the first chance to see it here.
From the International Competition of the Locarno festival emerges Terra SleeveBasil da Cunha’s third feature film, five years later World’s End (2019), and a short film later (2720, last year). The Portuguese-Swiss director returns to Reboleira, in Lisbon, to tell the story of Rosa, a young Cape Verdean who works in a bar to send money to her children. Harassment and everyday police violence are themes that emerge in a film that tells the story of Rosa, but also of the actress who plays her, the singer Eliana Rosa.
Finally, the national competition is completed with the documentary Stories about oblivion (Ukbar Filmes), a project by Dulce Fernandes that recalls Portugal’s role in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans; the new film by Diogo Costa Amarante, a Portuguese filmmaker who received the Golden Bear for Short Film in Berlin in 2017 with Small city and which is finally released as a feature film with We are in the air shown in a parallel section of the Rotterdam festival; and also fiction Greece (Glaz Entretenimento/Ukbar Filmes) by Brazilian director Leonardo Mouramateus. Regarding the latter, which tells the story of Greice, a 22-year-old Brazilian girl who studies Fine Arts in Lisbon, it is important to say that she also competes in the young section Smart 7, which combines festivals from 7 different countries (and has a selection of 7 films chosen to represent all member countries), with the intention of promoting the circulation of European titles.
In the short films, 19 films will be in competition, of which the following stand out: bathroomsnew short film by Jorge Jácome, which is based on a scientific study on the therapeutic use of magic mushrooms to create a narrative around a “Robin Hood New Age”, or Night in a forest, a 16-minute short film that Catarina Vasconcelos had its world premiere in Locarno last year. The author of Metamorphosis of birds (2020), He filmed the metamorphosis of the female souls that the Carmelites of Buçaco prohibited in their convent.
Other titles that the festival will allow you to discover in this same category are: Stories of smugglers, by Agnès Meng, Slimane, by Carlos Pereira, A mother goes to the beach by Pedro Hasrouny, When the Earth flees, by Federico Lobo, Rehearse and repeat, by Igor Dimitri, Romagema, by Jorge Crámez, In river plains and larger forests, by Miguel de Jesús, The illusion of an eternal kiss, by Marta Sousa Ribeiro, Happiness in a pot, by Clara Jost, I’ve never been so close by Francisca Doresover the water, by Alejandro David, It’s never too long again by Bruno Ferreira, Man of Aral, by Helena Gouveia MonteiroSo small that they seemed older. by Tania Dinis, kudibanguela, by Bernardo Magalhães and Everything except movies, by Lourenço Crespo and Afonso Mota.
The novelty of this edition is the Rizoma section, which presents a set of films that “aim to work on relevant current issues, renowned filmmakers and advances”, this is how the program sent to the press describes the programming, which aims to give “a critical perspective about the present around cinema as reflection and debate.” Rizoma is the meeting place, or so it seems due to the choice of films that wink at the festival’s large audience. It is in this context that, for example, a single sample of All of us strangersa film by Andrew Haigh, starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, which despite being nominated for several awards, such as the BAFTA, in Portugal went directly to the transmission without ever reaching the big screen, until now.
This Tuesday the full IndieLisboa program was released. The opening of the festival, on May 23, will be held with I’m not everything I want to be, a film about Libuše Jarcovjáková, a photographer whom The New York Times dubbed the “Nan Goldin of the Czech Republic.” Klára Tasovská’s film, screened at the Berlinale in February, portrays the suffocating atmosphere experienced after the Prague Spring of 1968, using photographs and excerpts from the photographer’s diaries. Indie’s closure occurs with black comedy dream scenario, by Kristoffer Borgli, this time accompanied by actor Nicholas Cage, a banal biology professor who appears in many people’s dreams. The producer is the American A24.
Tickets for the 21st IndieLisboa go on sale this Thursday, May 9. The festival will take place at the Ideal and São Jorge cinemas, at the Cinemateca Portuguesa, at Culturgest, at the Fernando Lopes Cinema and at the Piscina da Penha de França.
Source: Observadora
