Blood

O Sangue

Portugal

1989

95 Min

Black and White

Portuguese

Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
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DP Acácio de Almeida, Elso Roque, Martin Schäfer

CAST Pedro Hestnes, Nuno Ferreira, Inês de Medeiros, Luís Miguel Cintra, Canto e Castro

ED Manuela Viegas

Toronto

Synopsis

Few filmmakers can boast a body of work as audacious, beautiful or challenging as that of Pedro Costa, and Blood is one of the most extraordinary debuts of the past twenty years.

Filmed in startling monochrome and demonstrating a love and knowledge of classical Hollywood and European art cinema, Blood is a lushly stylized romantic fable. It explores the plight of two brothers coming to terms with the death of their father and the legacy of violence and debt he has left behind. Languid and unsettling, beautiful and intimate, with echoes of Tourneur, Bresson, Ray and Straub-Huillet, Blood is both elusive and utterly mesmerising. —Second Run

Director

Pedro Costa

Pedro Costa (born 1959) is a Portuguese film director. He is acclaimed for using his ascetic style to depict the marginalised people in desperate living situations. Many of his films are set in a district of Lisbon inhabited by the socially disadvantaged and shot in a natural and low-key way that makes them resemble documentaries. While studying history at University of Lisbon, Costa switched to film courses at School of Theatre and Cinema (Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema). After working as an assistant director to several directors such as Jorge Silva Melo and João Botelho, he made a first feature film O Sangue (The Blood) in 1989. He collected the France Culture Award (Foreign Cineaste of the Year) at 2002 Cannes International Film Festival for directing the film No Quarto da Vanda (In Vanda’s Room). Juventude em Marcha (Youth on the March, known as “Colossal Youth” in Anglophone countries, and “En avant, jeunesse” – “Onward, Youth” – in Francophone countries) was selected for… read more