Country: Portugal
Year: 2011
Duration: 140'
In a Lisbon suburb, Márcia lives with her two children Claúdia and Joca, and with her sister Ivete, who is a hairdresser at a shopping mall. One day, Claúdia, who works as a cashier to pay for her nursing studies, tells her mother that she has fallen in love with an older man, who is married. When Márcia meets him, she has the feeling that a threat hovers above her family. In the meantime, Joca, who is already a small, neighborhood pusher, decides to take the place of his dealer, but his plan fails and only Ivete’s sacrifice can save him. “The film explores how love and affection manage to survive in the sterile environment of a deprived inner-city neighbourhood. In such a context – threatened by ignorance, violence and the total absence of civilized values – love can be put under the microscope and its essence observed. The more arid the emotional landscape, the more unconditional and unquestionable any gesture of love becomes. This society is depicted in all its depravity in order to allow unconditional love to take shape.”
Biography
film director
João Canijo
João Canijo (Oporto, Portugal, 1958) studied history at the University of Oporto before abandoning his studies to work as an assistant to Manoel de Oliveira on the set of his film Francisca (1980), after which he collaborated with directors such as Wim Wenders, Alain Tanner and Werner Schroeter. His debut feature-length film, Three Less Me, was presented in Rotterdam, while Get a Life was selected in Cannes in 2001 in the section Un certain regard. In 2007, he participated in Venice in the section Horizons with Mal Nascida, while his most recent film, Blood of My Blood, won the Fipresci award at the San Sebastián Film Festival.
FILMOGRAFIA
filmografia essenziale/essential filmography
Três Menos Eu (Three Less Me, 1985), Filha da Mãe (Her Mother’s Daughter, 1989), Sapatos Pretos (Black Shoes, 1997), Ganhar a Vida (Get a Life, 2000), Noite Escura (In the Darkness of the Night, 2003), Mal Nascida (2007), Fantasia Lusitana (Lusitanian Illusion, doc., 2010), Trabalho de Actriz, Trabalho de Actor (Actor’s Work, doc., 2011),
Sangue do Meu Sangue (Blood of My Blood, 2011).
Cast
& Credits
regia, sceneggiatura/director, screenplay
João Canijo
fotografia/cinematography
Mário Castanheira
montaggio/film editing
João Braz
scenografia/production design
José Pedro Penha Lopes
suono/sound
Olivier Blanc, Ricardo Leal, Gerárd Rousseau, Elsa Ferreira
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Rita Blanco (Márcia Fialho), Anabela Moreira (Ivete Fialho), Cleia Almeida (Claúdia Filipa Fialho), Rafael Morais (Joca Fialho), Marcello Urgeghe (Alberto Vieira), Nuno Lopes (Telmo Sobral), Beatriz Batarda (Maria da Luz), Fernando Luís (Hélder/Nini), Teresa Madruga (Dona Judite), Teresa Tavares (Sandra Vanessa), Francisco Tavares (César Chaves), Wilma de Brito (Érica)
produttore/producer
Pedro Borges
produzione/production
Midas Filmes
vendita all’estero/world sales
Abril Filmes
