Choosing films that reflect some of the most singular voices of today is one of the higher notes of the festival’s program. If it’s a fact that this marks the entire festival program, it’s also relevant to highlight many of these films that bring the cinema from all over world to Portugal, by condensing new visions, a new imagination and a constant need to chase what’s new in the world of moving images.
Let’s start with the debut feature of the duo that marks the focus of this year’s Silvestre section. Jessica Forever debuted in Toronto and has since fueled a buzz of praise across the globe. Jessica Forever burns in violent romanticism: in a dystopian future where bloodthirsty youngsters form a matriarchal family clad in bulletproof vests and love. A first feature that is the culmination of the duo’s work in the short films (they won the Golden Bear in 2014) – which can be seen this year in Focus Silvestre. The retrospective is integral (films made in double and individually) and there will be a performance gaming that will be the highest moment of this focus.
Burning, Lee Chang Dong’s latest film, which was shown in competition at the last Cannes Film Festival and was considered by the media as one of the most important films of the year 2018. After eight years without filming, Lee Chang-dong returns to large screen with an adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami from the book ‘The Elephant Evaporates’. A mystery story built on a love triangle to which one of the vertices disappeared. A disturbing psychological puzzle that burns slowly over the riddles of youth. According to the director himself, this is a film about the anger of younger generations, their sense of powerlessness and how they are aware that their lives will be worse than their parents.
Shortly after we screened Offside at IndieLisboa 2007, Jafar Panahi was arrested and banned from filming for 20 years by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Iran. However, 3 Faces is already the fourth film that the director does illegally, and his return to the female world and the social difficulties women face in their country. Three women of three generations, three actresses to play actresses and one video within one film within another, with Panahi to make of itself. A complex set of mirrors that brings us back to the best of modern Iranian cinema.
Returning to the festival is also the filmography of Mike Leigh, one of the most renowned British filmmakers today. Screening in the Silvestre section will be Peterloo, a reenactment of the massacre of the same name, resulting from the attack of the British crown to a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration.
We close today’s list with I Was at Home But, by Angela Shanelec, winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, also premiering in IndieLisboa’s venues. A touching drama that tracks how a teenager’s existential issues can redefine the eyes of the adults around her.