''Ossos'' (English: "Bones") is a 1997 Portuguese film directed by

Pedro Costa Pedro Costa (born 30 December 1958) is a Portuguese film director. He is best known for his sequence of films set in Lisbon, which focuses on the lives of the impoverished residents of a slum in the Fontainhas neighbourhood. Biography After com ...

. The film was shot in the Fontainhas district of Lisbon (also known as "Estrela d'Africa"), where

disadvantaged The "disadvantaged" is a generic term for individuals or groups of people who: * Face special problems such as physical or mental disability * Lack money or economic supportKingdom of Nepal: Economic and Social Inclusion of the Disadvantaged Poo ...

dwellers and

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

from former

Portuguese colonies The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the l ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

live desperate lives. This

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

with some documentary elements made

acclaimed internationally. It was nominated for Golden Lion and won the best cinematography (

Golden Osella The Golden Osella is the name of several awards given at the Venice Film Festival. They are awarded irregularly and in various categories such as directing, screenwriting, cinematography, and technical contributions. The name derives from the ''o ...

) at the Venice International Film Festival in 1997. He further dealt with the now-defunct shanty district in his next two films, '' In Vanda's Room (2000)'' and ''

Colossal Youth ''Colossal Youth'' is the only studio album by Welsh post-punk band Young Marble Giants, released in February 1980 on Rough Trade Records. Young Marble Giants were offered the opportunity to record the album after Rough Trade heard just two son ...

(2006).''

Plot

The film focus on the interactions among four characters: Clotilde and Tina are close friends and neighbors living in the depressed Fontainhas district. Clotilde is very protective of the suicidal Tina, who has a newborn baby with an unnamed deadbeat father. Eduarda is a nurse living in a better working-class area. She met the father and the baby by chance, and get to know Clotilde and Tina as a result. Their ambiguous relationship keeps this downbeat story moving around the shanty town. The director's ascetic style and this district's faded cityscape emphasize the depressing tone of the film.

Cast

* Vanda Duarte as Clotilde * Nuno Vaz as The father * Maria Lipkina as Tina * Isabel Ruth as Eduarda * Inês Medeiros as Whore * Miguel Sermão as Clotilde's husband * Berta Susana Teixeira as Nurse

Credits

* Director: Pedro Costa * Writer: Pedro Costa * Producer: Paolo Branco * Cinematography: Emmanuel Machuel * Costume design: Isabel Favila * Production design: Zé Branco * Sound: Henri Maikoff * Sound: Gérard Rousseau * Editing: Jackie Bastide

Home video

This film, together with In Vanda's Room (2000) and

(2006), is released by the Criterion Collection in a box set ''Letters from Fontainhas: Three Films by Pedro Costa''.

References

External links