Hermínio liked to share his secrets. Trás-os-Montes was a secret, as was Lisbon’s nightlife. The food was a secret, just like the wine and the cigars. His friends were a secret, as were the poets, who were also his friends. And the books were the biggest secret of all. He unveiled all of them at Assírio & Alvim.
Archives: Filmes
In the 1950s, when Herzog was 13 years old, he was sharing an apartment with Klaus Kinski, an egomaniacal artist. From the chaos a beautiful albeit volatile partnership was born. In 1972, Herzog cast Kinski in “Aguirre”. Four more films would follow. Herzog traces the often violent up and downs of their relationship, revisiting Munich apartment where they first met — and thrashed, and the various locations of their films.
Two friends, Marc and Nicolas, are a bit lost in their lives… Malika, a stranger and a drop out, struggles for her life…
Maybe it’s the beginning of a love story between Marc and Malika… Maybe it’s something completely different…
Miriam finds old photos and she actually starts seeing all the world around her in black and white. And so to the Little Brother and to the Hen. But the black and white world makes them sad. Luckily there is a rainbow from what the Hen brings colours back. Together they will colour the surrounding back to normal.
Bobô is a film whose narrative comes from the meeting of two women, Sofia and Mariama. The engine of the film is the synergy created between them in the defense of a child. Sofia, the protagonist of the film, is a character who lives trapped in the shadows of her childhood, the weight of their “heritage”, from which it is urgent to break free. Mariama appears as someone also linked to this “inheritance.” She follows the rules demanded by her belonging, but at a certain moment she is forced to disobey to change the fate of little Bobô and prevent her from being subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). Characters Sofia and Mariama were redesigned with actresses Paula Garcia and Aissatu Indjai (debuting in this film), who put a lot of their experiences, personality and beliefs in them. We did a lot of research and reading, field work with the immigrant Guinean community, did some testing. This preparation allowed us a safe shooting, with space for improvisation. I think Bobô is a film with an undoubtedly feminine internal optic and logic, but the feminine here is not, as is so often portrayed, in the field of what is earthy and tangible. It lies instead with issues that transcend us: the relationship with death, the rules of the World, things that we cannot name. (Inês Oliveira)
If the scorpion could see and the viper could hear, there would be no escape”. The viper is deaf and the scorpion can’t see, so it is and so shall be, the same way the countryside is peaceful and the city bustling and the human being impossible to satisfy. Lacrau demands the return “to the curve where man got lost” in a journey from the city towards nature. The escape from chaos and emotional void we call progress; matter without spirit, without will. The search for the most ancient sensations and relationships of mankind. The amazement, the fear of the unknown, the loss of basic comforts, loneliness, the meeting with the other, the other animal, the other vegetable. A dive looking for a connection with the world. Where beginning and end are the same, but I am not. (João Vladimiro)
The invisible Gravity is compared with Karma, which commands Man’s experiential universe like gravity’s governance over the physical plane. Near a cement factory we see deformed mountains by series of blasts. Together with a man struggling to transport heavy recycle garbage to win over gravity (destiny).
Leroy, a 16 year old African-German, is too German to be black. His life gets complicated when he meets the skinheaded brothers of his girlfriend Eva.
“This project was made in response to the murder of John T. Williams by a Seattle police officer. We decided to make this piece when we first heard the news reports that the officer who shot Williams four times was not being criminally charged. The idea was to produce an audio-visual work that could be used to create awareness for people and communities who otherwise would never have been exposed to Williams’ death as well as to the ongoing violence against Aboriginal peoples in North America.” (Ehren Bear Witness Thomas)
Planning a workplace is an art, as this documentary shows. In a near future, the non-territorial office ideal fulfils and companies motivate their employees by making them feel right at home and special. The architechture, cold and majestic, but liberal, allows free circulation and a more efficient production. In the common areas informal conversations happen and give birth to the best inventions. Job interviews are mathematical and while the people interviewed wait for their final evaluation, half protected by the hugeness of the buildings, we learn about the interviewer’s selection process. We abandon this space with a captivating yet disturbing shot, as the binary language of the decoration reminds us that we are elements of a whole, individuals that can be numbered and scored just like answers to specific questions. (Ágata Pinho)
The life, demolition and reconstruction of the Kopaszi dam. Shot for ten years long in a forgotten landscape in the center of Budapest. People living in houseboats and wooden houses, struggling against flood, snow and investors who want them to evict. 10 years in 20 minutes.
Three perfectly true stories about lying: in three episodes based on documentary interviews we meet the burglar who, when found out, claims to be a moonlighting accountant, the boy who finds himself lying and confessing to a crime he didn’t commit and the woman whose whole life has been a chain of lies.
Driss’ friends warn him, but the handsome young man insists on trying to strike a friendship with Fouad, the hermetic middle-aged owner of a run-down beach cafe. Fouad ends up questioning Driss’ manhood. Driss soon becomes caught up in contradictions and rumors as complex and mysterious as the seductive sights and sounds of Paul Bowles’ vision of Morocco.
One of the most influential and powerful love stories of classic literature receives one of the finest cinema adaptations. Faithful to its origins Arnold handles the romantic plot line with great violence through passionate characters and lyrical images. Obsessed with cinema, she emphasises on the importance of image and the power of silence, positioning romanticism to its origins, on absolute originality of artistic inspiration. An experience based on strong emotions involving horror, terror, violence, sex, blood and spit. Fascinated with the character of Heathcliff, she chose her lead actor to be black stating his difference is of massive importance. She approaches Heathcliff’s childhood and the brutality surrounding this childhood in order to reveal his dark side as an adult. In the age of cynicism and sarcasm Arnold dares to adapt a doomed love story, dares to be romantic, dares to be emotional, dares to instinctively love. (Nina Veligradi)
In this science fiction film a virus lands on Sweden and transforms its inhabitants into zombies. The ones not infected isolate and come together to control and explore the weakest, the sick ones. The cinematography is dominated with skill and dives us into this frightening world. (Miguel Cabral)
When Dan gets out of jail, he goes in search of Alex.
A man-bear, neither bear, nor man, in search of his true identity between the circus and the jungle. A film about melancholy and unsuitableness. An animation drawn in charcoal about the pursuit of happiness and the need for someone who understands. (Carlos Ramos)
At early age children begin to work in the Mexican countryside. “The Inheritors” is a portrait of theirs lives and their daily struggle for survival. They have inherited tools and techniques from their ancestors, as well as their day-by-day hardship. Generations pass and they remain captive in a cycle of inherited poverty.