Pedro Costa, the filmmaker of the dispossessed

The Filmoteca de Catalunya begins the year by embracing the filmography of Pedro Costa. And not only the Portuguese director's signature films, but also those that inspire him. The cycle, which starts on 17 January and runs until 8 February, includes feature films by Costa such as Où gít votre sourire enfoui? Ossos, Casa de Lava and No quarto da Vanda, but also films chosen by the filmmaker, including Mudar de vida, by Paulo Rocha, Trás-os-Montes, by Margarida Cordeiro and António Reis, Give Us this Day, by Edward Dmytryk, Sicilia! by Danièlle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, and Night of the Demon, by Jacques Tourneur.

Born in Lisbon in 1959, Pedro Costa is a filmmaker committed to the most dispossessed and with a work that "shows a hidden reality, a product of the most unbridled capitalism", as can be read in the presentation of the retrospective written by the Filmoteca. The director will be present at some of the scheduled screenings, such as the one on the opening day: he himself will present his film Où gít votre sourire enfoui? (Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie?), a film released in 2001 which, in the words of Jean-Luc Godard, is the best film on the relationship between cinema and montage. One of Costa's most awarded films, No quarto da Vanda, from 2000, will be screened on 28 January, while the also award-winning Ossos, his debut film, will be screened on 22 and 27 January. The filmmaker shot this film in a poor neighbourhood in Lisbon, starring a family so immersed in misery that they even consider selling their baby.

All the details of the cycle in this link.