VITALINA VARELA

Vitalina Varela had spent all her life working the land in the mountains of the Isle of Santiago, Cape Verde. She was the youngest of eight brothers and sisters and she married her first love, Joaquim. In 1977, like the most Cape Verdean young men, Joaquim left his country with the promise of work as a bricklayer. Like all Cape Verdean women, Vitalina remained, waiting. At fifty-five-year-old she arrives in Lisbon three days after her husband’s funeral. She’s been waiting for her plane ticket for more than twenty-five years.

“When I met Vitalina no one knew exactly who she was; it felt like no one wanted her there. I went back a week later and shot in the house and asked her if I could take a photo of her; she agreed and she ended up in Horse Money. Ventura came with me and when they started talking they discovered that they were like distant cousins. After Horse Money I went back and stayed with her for many days, and she explained what had happened to her. I felt like she could do it, and she wanted to.”

pedro costa
VITALINA VARELA
Portogallo/Portugal, 2019, 124’, col.

vitalina varela

regia, soggetto, sceneggiatura/director, screenplay, story
Pedro Costa
fotografia/cinematography
Leonardo Simões
montaggio/film editing
João Dias, Vitor Cavalho
suono/sound
João Gazua
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Vitalina Varela, Ventura, Manuel Tavares Almeida, Francisco Brito, Imidio Monteiro, Marina Alves Domingues
produttore/producer
Abel Ribeiro Chaves
produzione/production
OPTEC

**
contatti/contacts
Zomia. Independent Film Society
diffusione@zomia.it
www.zomia.it