Portugal / France / Denmark,
1997, 94 min
Shown in 1998
CREDITS
- dir
-
Pedro Costa
- prod
-
Paulo Branco
- scr
-
Pedro Costa
- cam
-
Emmanuel Machuel
- editor
-
Jackie Bastide
- cast
-
Vanda Duarte, Nuno Vaz, Maria Lipkina, Isabel Ruth, Ines Medeiros
- source
-
Gemini Films, 73, rue Saint Denis, 75001 Paris, France, FAX: 33-1-42-33-12-13
- premiere
-
U.S. Premiere
OTHER
Portugese director Pedro Costa doesn’t flinch at presenting the grim and desolate aspects of life in a Lisbon slum. When Tina has a baby she neither wants nor is able to care for, her desperation spirals outward, affecting both her boyfriend and her friend Clotilde as well as Eduarda, a nurse who tries to help Tina and her friends. Separated from her child and filled with remorse, Tina goes to Eduarda’s apartment and turns on the gas; after Eduarda finds Tina, Clotilde decides to take matters into her own hands. Meanwhile, Tina’s boyfriend attempts to sell the baby to anyone who can afford to feed it. Shot on the streets of the Estrella d’Africa section of Lisbon in a palette of deep blues and greens, Ossos is unsentimental and relentless in forcing the viewer to confront the effects of poverty. Costa’s singular editing style, characterized by lingering closeups and lengthy tracking shots that cut away before the resolution of a scene, effectively renders the characters’ frustrations and sense of futility. Refraining from moralizing about the issues or pitying his subjects, Costa skillfully examines the difficult choices made by a segment of society rarely seen in modern cinema.
—Jennie Yabroff
FACTOID #188
According to an item in the 1969 Halloween edition of the Hollywood Reporter, Swedish director Bo Widerberg cancelled a Festival tribute at the last minute with a cryptic telegram from Stockholm that read, ’Sorry impossible to come. Must stay in bed.’
