After a suicidal teenage girl gives birth, she misguidedly entrusts her baby’s safety to the troubled, deadbeat father, whose violent actions take the viewer on a tour of the foreboding, crumbling shantytown in which they live.
Cinematography
Shadows and fluorescent lights that feel like characters.
Direction
Costa's static camera makes poverty unflinching, unstageable.
Director
Pedro Costa
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot in Lisbon's undocumented Cape Verdean immigrant community, Costa's first 'Fontainhas' film launched his decades-long documentary-fiction hybrid project.
Vanda Duarte, playing Clotilde, was a resident Costa met during location scouting; she became his muse for subsequent films.
DK
FR
