Movie of the Week – III Movies of João Salaviza

Cinema. There’s a new generation of young Portuguese directors playing the game, Gonçalo Tocha (É na Terra não na Lua), Miguel Gomes (Tabu) and João Salaviza (Arena and Rafa), that after a couple of awards in Berlin and Cannes have achieved a gorgeous reputation among cinema critics.

Midas Films just launched a DVD with Salaviza’s three short movies and its available in French and English as well, so exportable. In an interview for a Portuguese radio show the young director shared his witty thoughs about his work “my flat mates say my emotional intelligence is all focused on cinema”. He grow up in Lisbon and the pictures he captures in his movies are true, in a way that they exist just like they are in reality, with the same people around, same color, same essentia.

 “Arena”, 2009, won Golden Palm in Cannes, is a short movie and tells a story of Mauro. He’s arrested and lives with an electronic bracelet at his home. He likes to tattoo people. It’s mid-day, the sun is hot and strong, and three kids of the area come near Mauro’s window.

In “Cerro Negro”, 2011, Anajara comes back from its work in the jingle-jangle morning. She cannot leave Iuri at school. Seventy kilometers from home Allison waits his wife and son. It’s the visiting day in Santarém’s prison.

The plot of Rafa, 2012, Golden Bear in Berlin, is about a child named Rafa. At 6AM he found out his mother was detained at the police station. He leaves his home in the Southbank of Tejo River, crosses the bridge with a friend in a motorbike and arrives to inner Lisbon.

Salaviza’s technique and photography are remarkable, and also the ends - everyone can give a future to his characters. He's working on a new film to be lanched in 2013, a film with more than 60 minutes, shot in Lisbon, because he is a big-city man.  3.5/5