"The film is an interior
voyage into the artistic universe of the Portuguese sculptor Rui Chafes. It
begins with the crossing of an intimate space that is threatened by mystery, by
anxiety and by a strange magic that envelopes the artist's work in his atelier.
We enter his studio, in the noise of the machines, in the silence that surrounds
the conception of his work. Then we are in a mountain forest and in various
European cities (Lisbon, Oporto, Madrid, Munich, Paris) where Chafes' sculptures
are on display. We cross Germany in search of traces of the Romantics: Novalis,
Goethe, Kleist are Chafes' points of reference, as is the Gothic sculptor Tilman
Riemenschneider. Images and more images, and the film by Helma Sanders Brahms
about Kleist, which Chafes watches in the darkness of a cinema. Finally, the
emptiness and the dust, the silence of those who have always known that in the
end what remains are work, words and the yearning for supreme ideals." (J.
Trabulo)
Biography
film director
João Trabulo
João Trabulo (Portugal, 1970) graduated in communications at the Universidade da Beira Interior in 1995, and then got a specialization in film restoration and conservation at the Cineteca Spagnola. In 1998 he studied directing at La fémis in Paris and made his first short, Vómito, followed in 1999 by the documentary Pureza/Impureza. In 2001 he worked on the production of two films by Pedro Costa, No Cuarto da Vanda and Où gît votre sourire enfui. That same year he made the documentary LH: Saber Ver, Demora, which participated at the International Festival of Films on Art in Montreal. In 2004 he founded Periferia Filmes, a production company which supports new Portuguese cinema, with which he has made numerous shorts and documentaries.
FILMOGRAFIA
filmografia/filmography
Gelo (mm, 1995), Pureza/Impureza (cm, doc., 1998), A Arte da Fuga (cm, 2000), Lh: Saber Ver, Demora (doc., 2001), Durante o Fim (doc., 2003), Sol Dormente (cm, 2004), Homens que São como Lugares Mal Situados (cm, doc., 2006), Unsaid (cm, 2006), Sombras - Um Filme Sonâmbulo (2007), Landscape (cm, doc., 2009), Sem Companhia (doc., 2010).
Cast
& Credits
Fotografia/Director of photography: Miguel M. Carvalho
Montaggio/Film editor: Patrícia Saramago
Suono/Sound: Tiago Matos
Interpreti/Cast: Rui Chafes, Olga Barry, Markus Ambach
Produttore/Producer: Francisco Villa-Lobos