Reinforcing the festival’s commitment with the portuguese production, this year the festival’s National Competition will have 21 short and feature films competing in this section. Filmed in the small village of Boticas, Bostofrio, où le ciel rejoint la terre, by Paulo Carneiro, is a documentary journey where the director explores who was and how was his grandfather.
The third feature film by Susana Nobre, Tempo Comum, mixes cinema and reality in an intimate portrait of a defining moment in the life of a couple – the birth of their first daughter. In Our Madness, João Viana continues the work of his first feature film, The Battle of Tabatô (IndieLisboa 2013). In this work the director accompanies Ernania in her espectral drift through Mozambique while looking for her husband and son.
Sandro Aguilar returns to IndieLisboa with Mariphasa, a story that once more is a proof of the excellency of the director’s intriguing cinema with traces of sci-fi. André Gil Mata debuts in fiction features with The Tree, after presenting the short films Arca d’Água, Casa, O Coveiro e Num Globo de Neve at IndieLisboa previous editions. Shot entirely in Bosnia during the strict months of January and February this is a film where the cold weather penetrates us into extraordinary sequences, filmed in 16mm film.
A new generation in portuguese cinema
A strong selection of films comprises this year’s National Competition. These are the filmmakers that we believe will mark the national and international cinematographic production in the coming years. Starting with the experimental views revealed in In a Foreign Country, by Miguel Seabra Lopes and Karen Akerman exploring the literary universe of Herberto Helder’s work, to Rita Figueiredo’ s unique voice in The Great Attractor, or the fictional experiences in Histórias de Fantasmas, by Carlos Pereira, and Fortune, by Miguel Tavares.
The same is true for the documentary reports of Gonçalo Robalo’s The Dead, and Jorge Vaz Gomes’s Strange-map, the first in a more serious tone while the second more in a fun note.
Fiction is represented by the following films: Self Destructive Boys, by André Santos and Marco Leão (who continue to show and develop their potential after Pedro); You See the Moon, by Miguel Nunes (debut film of the actor as a director, telling a story of his own); Amor, Avenidas Novas, by Duarte Coimbra (a school film which is an ode to independent cinema), Russa by João Salaviza and Ricardo Alves Jr. (that accompanies a woman with a surprising force from Aleixo’s neighborhood in Porto); Sleepwalk, by Filipe Melo (created from a comic written by himself and by Juan Cava); Mariana’s Late, by Frederico Mesquita (or the eternal conflict about having or not having a child); and Bullet Points for a Revolution, by Tiago Rosa-Rosso (again in April, it’s time for revolution).
In the animation genre, two surprises with an experimental tone: Via, by Maria Ferreira and War of the Worlds by Manuel Brito.