Rita is fifteen and spends the summer between warm afternoons of teenage love and party nights with her friend Sara. From Portugal to the South Pacific, the pleasures of this routine will take a turn when the young girl visits the art show of a new neighbor in the local community.
Direction
Nicolau's deadpan absurdism makes mundane moments quietly destabilizing.
Production
The fake-South-Pacific set design is gloriously unconvincing and perfect.
Director
João Nicolau
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The South Pacific scenes were shot in Portugal using local plants and creative set design, not actual location footage.
João Nicolau is part of a wave of Portuguese filmmakers blending deadpan humor with emotional ambiguity — this film premiered at Locarno, where such tonal strangeness is celebrated.
PT
