No quarto da Vanda

by Pedro Costa

The film follows the daily life of Vanda Duarte, a heroin addict in Lisbon, and the community she lives in.

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DATA SHEET

Orginal title:

No quarto da Vanda

Year:

2000

Length (min.):

169'

Original language:

Portuguese

Subtitles:

Italian, French

Production:

Contracosta Produções

Co-Producers:

ventura film sa, Pandora Film Produktion

Worlds sales:

Pandora Film Produktion

Distributors:

Les Bookmakers / Capricci Films

With the support of:

ICAM, Filmförderung Hamburg

Facts & Figures:

World premiere, 8 August 2000, Locarno Film Festival

Prizes
(selection):

Festival de Cannes 2002, Foreign Cineaste of the Year
Locarno International Film Festival, 2000: First Prize (Youth Jury Award), 2 special mentions

Festivals
(selection):

Taipei, 17th Taipei Film Festival, 2015
Amiens, Festival International du Film d'Amiens, 2002
Montreal, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma Montréal, 2001
Vienna, Viennale - Vienna International Film Festival, 2000
Locarno, 53. Festival internazionale del film di Locarno, 2000

SYNOPSIS

Life has misunderstood me. I have lived in ghostly houses abandoned by others. Houses even a witch would not have inhabited. But sometimes I found a house which was worth the trouble. All of my houses, every one of them, were furtive. They had been abandoned. If those had been good people, they wouldn't have demolished the houses. And yet, house after house. I have paid more for what I didn't do than for what I did.

LOCATION

COLLECTIONS

Cinémathèque suisse

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CAST & CREW

Direction:

Pedro Costa

Film script:

Pedro Costa

Cast:

Vanda Duarte, Lena Duarte, Zita Duarte, Manuel Gomes Miranda

Director of photography:

Pedro Costa

Sound:

Pillippe Morel, Matthieu Imbert

Editing:

Dominique Auvray, Patricia Saramago

Sound editing:

Waldir Xavier, Jean Dubreuil

Producers:

Karl Baumgartner, Andres Pfäffli, Francisco Villa-Lobos

HIGHLIGHTS

Director Pedro Costa, one of Portugal's most renowned filmmakers, took an interest in the Cape Verdean immigrants who settled in Lisbon and, after Ossos, began shooting No quarto da Vanda, a complex and very personal work, on the borderline between documentary and fiction, which follows the life of Vanda Duarte, a street greengrocer and daily heroin user in the demolished shantytown of Fontainhas. Costa couldn't find the means to finish the film: no one wanted to support this too bizarre work. The director of the Locarno Festival, Marco Müller, saw it as a work in progress and, convinced of the quality of the film, he returned to Ticino and invited Ventura Films to co-produce it with the support of RSI. The film iwas then entirely post-produced in Ticino and presented in competition at the Festival, where it obtained a mention from the Official Jury and the Youth Jury Award. The film was then presented at festivals all over the world, from Cannes to Cinéma du réel in Paris, from Yamagata to Valencia. Remaining faithful to the Locarno festival, Pedro Costa won the Pardo d'Oro with his latest film, Vitalina Varela, in 2019.

Frédéric Maire, Director Cinémathèque Suisse

No quarto da Vanda

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