Architecture is an echo of a silent frustration. A construction project (by Niemeyer) of the times Lebanon was a case of democratic success. It is still unfinished and it functions as a recipient of the unconscious collective of the characters and their f
From photographs of true cities with a traumatic past such as Berlin, Budapest and New York, the director builds imaginary cities that could very well exist. Cities where we live, where we have friends, family, work. A poetic reflection on photography about what a city is. (C. R.)
Based upon testimonies from the workers of the house, we slowly enter in a whispered absurd and delirious story. Those who coexist there reach the conclusion that the house was inhabited by terrorists. The facts of the crime are only evidences of the imag
The “House” is the place where the grandmother of the director ever lived in. Visual and sound distortions introduce us into the universe of an old person whose personality is irrevocably intertwined with the various objects that surround her. A place whe
An incursion into the universe of the fishermen that stay on earth. A fish in a bathtub in a social neighborhood. It must be kept alive against all expectations and when everything around it degrades. A meditative film, somewhat urban, in which a man of t
Mare decides to leave her husband Janko and Janko unable to cope with the new reality of abandonment and sexual frustration reacts violently towards his family deteriorating things. A modern middle-class family drama about a marriage that fell apart durin
Portugal, beginning of the new millennium.
Liza is a young Russian immigrant married to Vitor, a Portuguese man. He is in fact a petty crook who lives off scams and tricking old ladies. Their son, Mauro, is a strange child who has decided not to speak Fer
Pablo Larrain returns to IndieLisboa, after his highly successful “Tony Manero” with a gripping political critique. The time is 1973, the place Chile, the days that dictator Pinochet turned against the socialist president Salvador Allende. A frustrated mo
A group of people is invited to view a film “lively” with binocular in the midst of the Californian desert . When the action reaches them with the speed of a tire gaining life to kill, this film becomes a horror movie. Quentin Dupieux knowingly got the 70
The collective Flatform takes us through the visual and sonorous countryside universe. Suddenly the elements look as if they were moving… the image is assembled and disassembled. A reflection upon space and the moving image. (M.C.)
A father and his teenage son travel to Berlin. The boy has never met his mother who is in hospital with a koma. The father is confronted by his uncertain past. Both are unsettled by the winter gloom in the unfamiliar big city, and by the hostile environme
Three people prepare for a swimming proof. The award will be the grant of the citizenship for the best country of the world. A surreal approach to the emigration universe in which all the images are traversed by an almost apocalyptical aesthetic. An inten
The powerful animal breathes and bellows in the shadows. Outside, everyone waits for him: they talk, scream, eat, drink. The show will begin. (M. C.)
The five Japanese elements are, in order of importance – Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Void. People and animals are side by side on a very old game. There is a day and night. All exists simultaeneously. A journey through the Portuguese border. (André Príncipe)
Chinese director Li Hongqi narrates the rituals of everyday life for the residents of a village in South China during winter vacation. The center of gravity of this minimalistic comic film is the monotonous actions, the thoughts and the dilemmas of local
Using time-lapse imaging, the film follows the entire course of the sun through various landscapes. The sun remains in the exact centre of the screen, burning the image or disappearing. A disturbing and poetic experience leading us to reconsider our relat
Jane is 21 years old and lives with two other young adults, Melissa and Mikey. Wherever she goes, she is always accompanied by her dog Starlet. Chance leads her to become friends with Sadie, a lonely 85-year-old, who approaches her with the intention of extorting money. While Jane looks like a young innocent girl without vices in the eyes of Sadie, her life with Mikey and Melissa turns out to be another. Sean Baker, director of Prince of Broadway, screened at IndieLisboa in 2009, continues to surprise us with an intense film, served by an excellent work of image and excellent actresses. Undoubtedly, a great film to retain from the most recent U.S. independent production. (C. C.)
Once crowded the Olympic swimming pool of the Praia Riviera Club, in Ghana, is now inhabited by desolation. The camera looks at the dry maritime traces, the crabs skeletons, the used bricks and the garbage dragged by the wind. The silence is all over the