Utopia – UK Portuguese Film Festival

7 Wishes - 7 Magnificent Films

Ciné Lumière / Art House Crouch End / Genesis Mile End / Birkbeck College, Londres

In the year that marks the 500th anniversary of the first publication of Thomas Moore’s Utopia, Filmville celebrates the seventh year of UTOPIA – UK Portuguese Film Festival. For this very special edition — it is said that the number seven is the number of perfection—, the festival presents a selection of seven outstanding films. Seven is odd. Seven is significant. Seven deadly sins to seven virtues. Seven colours in a rainbow. Seven notes in the diatonic scale. Seven letters in the Roman numeral system. Seven days a week. Seven wonders in the ancient world. Seven films to enjoy.

This year, the festival challenged special guests to pick seven titles that they perceived as the most relevant in contemporary Portuguese Cinema and the result is a strikingly imaginative programme. British film critics Kieron Corless and Jonathan Romney, the writer Hélder Macedo and the painter Paula Rego picked their favourite films that portray an eclectic take on Portuguese culture and recent history.

7th UK Portuguese Film Festival 25 Nov — 8 Dec 2016

All screenings will be accompanied by an introduction or a screen-talk. Through the hand of independent film-maker Manuel Mozos, Sight & Sound film critic Kieron Corless’ choice will give us a true insight into the mind of legendary director of the Portuguese Cinematheque João Bénard da Costa, a figure akin to Henry Langlois that epitomizes boundless cinematic passion. Paula Rego’s and Kieron Corless’ choices provide us with a bird’s eye view on the work of Portuguese women film-makers, both in documentary and in fiction, in the originality of Joana Pontes’ and Rita Azevedo Gomes’ films. Jonathan Romney’s and Hélder Macedo’s choices, in the shape of award winning films on recent Portuguese colonial history, afford us food for thought. And Hélder Macedo’s curatorial insight helps us bring to London the work of José de Sá Caetano and João César Monteiro, key film-makers and intelligent and beautiful films that give us an intuition of Portugal’s contemporary cinema, culture and utopias.

The full festival listings can be found at: http://www.utopiafestival.org.uk/

LINE-UP

FRI 25 NOV 8.30PM CINÉ LUMIÈRE: Others will Love the Things That I have Loved

SAT 26 NOV 6.30PM CINÉ LUMIÈRE: A Woman’s Revenge

SUN 27 NOV 6.00PM ARTHOUSE CROUCH END: Tabu

TUE 6 DEC 6.30PM GENESIS MILE END: Ruins Within

TUE 6 DEC 8.30PM GENESIS MILE END: Letters from War

WED 7 DEC 2.00PM BIRKBECK: The Portuguese XX Century

THU 8 DEC 6:30PM GENESIS MILE END: Recollections of the Yellow House

CINÉ LUMIÈRE FRI 25 NOV 8.40PM. JOÃO BÉNARD DA COSTA - OTHERS WILL LOVE THE THINGS THAT I HAVE LOVED (PG*) + Introduction by Kieron Corless. Portugal 2014 Dir. Manuel Mozos 75’. Programmed by Kieron Corless. A tribute to the cinema under the cloak of celebrating the extraordinary life of João Bénard da Costa. Da Costa was director of the Portuguese Cinematheque for 18 years. He also featured, as an actor, in the filmographies of such key Portuguese directors as Manoel de Oliveira and João César Monteiro, in addition to being a film buff, a writer and a man of culture. This unusual biography is constructed such that it tells da Costa’s fascinating life through what he loved, feared and obsessed about; in painting, in film or in literature, from the baroque to Borges. This film was selected by the film critic Kieron Corless as representative of the best in contemporary Portuguese Cinema. In Portuguese with English subtitles. * Locally classified.

CINÉ LUMIÈRE SAT 26 6.30PM. A WOMAN’S REVENGE (12A*) + Introduction by Kieron Corless. Portugal 2011 Dir. Rita Azevedo Gomes 100’. Programmed by Kieron Corless. Roberto is one of those men who hold deception as the greatest art. A dandy, perhaps. Or maybe a libertine. But the truth is that, at heart, Roberto is burdened by a deep tedium. The boredom bearing upon those who have already exhausted all the pleasures of life. The only thing still surprising him is the fact that nothing surprises him anymore. Until one evening he has an overwhelming encounter with a woman. A free adaptation of the homonymous short story in “Les Diaboliques” by Barbey D’Aurevilly, 1874, this film was selected by the film critic Kieron Corless as representative of the best in contemporary Portuguese Cinema. With Rita Durão and a special participation by Isabel Ruth. In Portuguese with English subtitles. * Locally classified.

ARTHOUSE CINEMA CROUCH END SUN 27 NOV 8.00PM. TABU (15*) + Introduction by Hélder Macedo. Portugal, France, Germany 2012 Dir. Miguel Gomes 118’. Programmed by Hélder Macedo and Jonathan Romney. Miguel Gomes’s FIPRESCI (Berlinnale) Prize win was selected by the Portuguese writer Hélder Macedo and the film critic Jonathan Romney as representative of the best in contemporary Portuguese cinema. Tabu has been released in over 50 countries and has won dozens of awards. In this film, a temperamental old woman, her Cape Verdean maid and a neighbour devoted to social causes all share the same floor of an apartment building in Lisbon. When the old lady dies, the other two learn of an episode from her past: a tale of love and crime set in an Africa straight out of the world of adventure films. Thanks to its originality and quality, retrospectives of Gomes’ work have been programmed at the Viennale, the BAFICI, the Torino Film Festival, and in Germany and the USA. In Portuguese with English subtitles. In partnership with King´s College. * Locally classified.

GENESIS MILE END CINEMA TUE 6 DEC 6.30PM. RUINS WITHIN (PG*) + Introduction by Hélder Macedo. Portugal 1976 Dir. José de Sá Caetano 110’. Programmed by Hélder Macedo. An unmissable screening of a truly original film that has remained hidden in the vaults of the Portuguese cinema archives for decades. A one-off London screening of the sole remaining 35mm subtitled copy of this remarkable film. Easter 1943, Algarve’s coast. A military aircraft crashes into the sea, near a beach. The two survivors, RAF pilots, are rescued by a Belgian woman and her children, who are taking refuge in Portugal. The Ruins Within is a fictional testimony of life in Portugal during World War II, and of the shaking of day-to-day naivety by the tales of war told by the two pilots. Winner of the Best First Feature at the Hyeres Festival (1977), The Ruins Within was selected by the Portuguese writer Hélder Macedo as representative of the best in Portuguese Cinema. In Portuguese with English subtitles. In partnership with King´s College and Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema. * Locally classified.

GENESIS MILE END CINEMA TUE 6 DEC, 8.30PM. LETTERS FROM WAR (15*) + Screentalk with Hélder Macedo and Producer Luís Urbano. Portugal 2016 Dir. Ivo M. Ferreira 105’. Programmed by Hélder Macedo and Jonathan Romney. This is Portugal’s entry for the 2017 Oscars in the category of Best Foreign Film. 1971, António Lobo Antunes’ life is brutally interrupted when he is drafted into the Portuguese Army to serve as a doctor in one of the worst war-zones of the Colonial War, the East of Angola. Away from everything he holds dear, Antunes writes to his wife surrounded by an increasingly violent setting. Moving between military posts, he falls for Africa and matures politically. Around him, an entire generation aches to return home. Amidst the uncertainty of war, only the letters help him survive. Letters from War was selected by the film critic Jonathan Romney and the Portuguese writer Hélder Macedo as representative of the best in Portuguese cinema. In Portuguese with English subtitles. In partnership with King’s College. * Locally classified.

BIRKBECK COLLEGE WED 7 DEC 2.00PM. THE PORTUGUESE XX CENTURY: THE END OF THE EMPIRE (PG*) + Editing Masterclass with TV editor Rui Branquinho. Portugal 2002 Dir. Joana Pontes 60’. Programmed by Paula Rego. This documentary series was selected by the British-Portuguese artist Paula Rego as the most relevant narrative in Portuguese moving image production. This is part of a series that encompassed 300 interviews, hundreds of documents, photos and films from both national and international archives, all composing an extraordinary docu-series about the evolution of Portuguese society throughout the 20th Century. In this particular episode, number thirteen, we are given privileged insight into the stories and the rare family footage of individuals that escaped the eminent civil war in Angola in fragile boats or through extremely dangerous roads in 1975. It also includes interviews with key protagonists of the Portuguese revolution and the decolonisation process. In Portuguese with English subtitles. Masterclass: In a unique London event, the television editor Rui Branquinho will grant us an insight into the creative process behind The Portuguese XX Century series and will also demonstrate the post production process with various examples of his work as editor for historic and art documentary series. This session will give a broad overview of Branquinho’s technical aptitude and wide experience of the post production process. In partnership with King´s College. * Locally classified.

GENESIS MILE END CINEMA THU 8 DEC 6.30PM. RECOLLECTIONS OF THE YELLOW HOUSE (15*) + Introduction by Hélder Macedo. Portugal 1989 Dir. João Cesar Monteiro 122’. Programmed by Hélder Macedo. Winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Recollections of The Yellow House was selected by the Portuguese writer Hélder Macedo as representative of the best in Portuguese cinema. João de Deus (John of God) is a poor and miserable man, languishing in a tiny room of a cheap boarding-house in a typical narrow street of Lisbon’s old town. Monteiro’s alter-ego, John of God, is an ill-fated and sexually frustrated man that spends his days obsessing about the women around him. Recollections of the Yellow House takes us through John’s increasingly tense journey from the Lisbon port to the Yellow House, the tired mental hospital Miguel Bombarda, along the way paying tribute to the city and to many of the great authors in cinema, music and literature the city has given refuge to. In Portuguese with English subtitles. In partnership with King´s College. * Locally classified.

NOTES TO THE EDITOR

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

The festival has existed for seven years thanks to the support of Instituto Camões of Portugal, the institutional backing of the Portuguese Embassy in the UK and sponsorship from TAP. The festival works in partnership with King’s College, Birkbeck University of London and Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema. The festival is curated by Filmville and directed by Érica Faleiro Rodrigues.

PROGRAMMERS

HÉLDER MACEDO

Macedo was born in South Africa and spent his childhood in Mozambique. He began writing poetry and novels at a young age, but following censorship of his work by the Salazar regime, he interrupted his career until later in life. A committed anti-fascist, Macedo was arrested and imprisoned by the state, leading to his exile in London in 1960. It was at this point that Hélder Macedo joined King’s College London, both as a PhD student and as an assistant lecturer. He has published several novels, reevaluating recent Portuguese history, to great critical acclaim, and has distinguishing himself with his innovative perspectives on the connection between the literary text and the intellectual and cultural horizons in which it is produced. Macedo has also become known as a brilliant writer of poetry.

PAULA REGO

Born in Portugal and long domiciled in the UK, Paula Rego has always instilled a sense of magical realism into her work: quirky contemporary mythologies pointing to underlying psychology and sexuality, through a feminine viewpoint. Rego studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and was an exhibiting member of the London Group, along with David Hockney and Frank Auerbach. Her characters often take the form of animals for satirical effect. She was the first artist-in-residence at the National Gallery in London. In 2009, a museum dedicated to Rego’s work opened in Cascais, Portugal, and in 2010 Rego was made a Dame of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. In 2010 Rego also won the MAPFRE Foundation Drawing Prize in Madrid.

JONATHAN ROMNEY

Jonathan Romney is a journalist, screenwriter, director and lecturer. He was chief film critic at the Independent on Sunday for 12 years, and prior to that was deputy editor at Sight & Sound, film critic at the New Statesman and film editor at City Limits. He currently writes a weekly online review column for Film Comment, and also contributes regularly to The Observer, The Guardian, Sight & Sound, and Screen Daily. He has also written for London Review of Books, Artforum and Modern Painters. Since 1997, Jonathan has been programme advisor on French cinema for the London Film Festival. He is currently a member of the selection panel for the European Parliament’s LUX film prize, and has been a member of the jury on the Un Certain Regard and Critics’ Week sections at the Cannes Film Festival.

KIERON CORLESS

Kieron Corless is Deputy Editor of Sight & Sound. Prior to that he was European Editor at Large for Vertigo magazine. He has also written about cinema and television for numerous other periodicals, including Time Out London, Frieze and The Independent. He is the co-author, with Chris Darke, of Cannes: Inside the World’s Premier Film Festival (Faber & Faber), and has contributed articles and chapters to various other edited collections on cinema. He has served on numerous international film festival juries, and programmed various film events and programmes in London, including a retrospective of Eugène Green and a season of recent Portuguese cinema.

INVITED SPEAKERS

LUÍS URBANO

Luís Urbano founded the cultural production co-operative Curtas Metragens, CRL, the organisation behind Portugal’s prestigious Vila do Conde International Short Film Festival. He is one of the festival’s directors and spearheaded the Portuguese short film agency. Urbano has produced several short films as well as feature films, including Our Beloved Month of August by Miguel Gomes, which was selected for Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, A Zona by Sandro Aguilar, The Portuguese Nun by Eugène Green, The Sword And The Rose by João Nicolau and Tabu by Miguel Gomes, which premiered in the competition section at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival, winning the Alfred Bauer Award - Critics Award FIPRESCI. Recently, he has produced Letters from War (66th Berlinale – Official Competition).

RUI BRANQUINHO

Branquinho his a widely experienced television editor with a long experience in post production and a deep understanding of narrative and its rhythm, pace and tension; having worked in numerous series and one-off documentaries. His career spans more than a quarter of a century, with directors such as Joana Pontes, Patrícia Faria, Susana Leite and Fernando Ávila. Branquinho has edited both political factual programmes and art series, and has also worked as a lecturer in directing for television and television post production. Amongst his many titles, we can highlight Portugal, a Social Portrait, directed by António Barreto and Joana Pontes, The Portuguese XX Century,The prodigious Writer (on Jorge de Sena) and Painting Stories (on the collection of Portuguese art by gallery owner Manuel de Brito), all directed by Joana Pontes.

TICKETS

Ciné Lumière: standard £8

Arthouse Crouch End Cinema: standard £11

Genesis Cinema: standard £8

Birkbeck College: free entrance

Ciné Lumière 17 Queensberry Place SW7 2DT www.institut-francais.org.uk/cine-lumiere +44 (0) 20 7871 3515

Art House Crouch End Cinema 159A Tottenham Lane, N8 9BT www.arthousecrouchend.co.uk +44 (0) 020 8245 3099

Genesis Cinema 93-95 Mile End Rd E1 4UJ www.genesiscinema.co.uk +44 (0) 20 7780 2000

Birkbeck, University of London 43 Gordon Square WC1H OP

For any press enquiries, please contact: Fernanda Franco M: +44 (0) 7939 941 831 E: press@filmville.org

Also for press enquiries, please contact Leonor Pinho +44 (0) 7849 965 084 E: leonor.pinho@filmville.org

Further information on all films: www.utopiafestival.org.uk

Facebook: FilmvilleUKPortugueseFilmFestival

Twitter: @Portuguesefilm

The festival is funded by Instituto Camões, sponsored by TAP Portugal and kindly supported by the Portuguese Embassy in the UK.