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Irim Tolentino as Beatriz in A Guerra da
Beatriz
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The Canadian Film Institute (CFI) presents the 4th edition of the annual Cor-Ação film festival in collaboration with the diplomatic Missions of the Portuguese Speaking Countries in Ottawa and the Portuguese Program at the University of Ottawa. The festival presents four new feature films from annual favourites like Brazil, which offers the opening film Gonzaga, a multi-award-winning true story of father/son music icons from different walks of life. There’s a little bit of Brazil, too, in the Angolan co-pro The Great Kilapy, which comes to Ottawa after having its world premiere in Toronto in the Contemporary World Cinema slate at TIFF 2012. The programming highlight for hardcore film buffs, however, is the screening of Beatriz’s War, which is the first feature film ever to come out of East Timor. The film is a guerrilla-style production by members from the resistance movement in the country’s war for independence. How often do cinephiles get to see a national cinema in the making, especially with a film from active participants of its own history?
The line-up for Cor-Ação: Portuguese Language Film Festival
is as follows:
Gonzaga: From Father to Son (Gonzaga: De Pai pra Filho)
Dir. Breno Silveira | Brazil | 2012 | 130
min
Thursday, May 21, 2015, 6:30 pm
Synopsis: Gonzaga
is the sprawling story of Brazilian popular singer Luiz Gonzaga, and his son
Gonzaguinha, two icons of popular music, one from the north-eastern backlands
and the other from the “favela” Morro de São Carlos in Rio de Janeiro. The film
follows the rise of Luis from his humble beginnings in north-eastern Brazil,
his determination, his unpreparedness and lack of training to deal with fame,
and his emotional distance from his son, who would later also turn into a
famous singer.
-Winner of 5 Cinema Brazil Grand
Prize awards including Best Film and Best Director
The Great Kilapy (O Grande Kilapy)
Dir. Zézé Gamboa | Angola/Brazil/Portugal |
2012 | 100 min
Friday, May 22, 2015, 6:30 pm
Synopsis: Zézé Gamboa's sardonic
historical drama follows a good-hearted, apolitical con man who, on the eve of
Angolan independence in the mid-1970s, pulls off a massive swindle at the
expense of the Portuguese colonial administration — and soon after finds
himself hailed as a hero of the national liberation struggle.
-Official Selection: 2012 Toronto
International Film Festival
Florbela
Dir. Vicente
Alves do Ó | Portugal | 2012 | 119 min
Saturday, May 23, 2015, 6:30 pm
Synopsis:
A compelling biography of Portuguese poet Florbela
Espanca. Tainted by a number of divorces in the 1920's, Florbela resorts to her
writing, filled with eroticism and femininity, to cope with another tumultuous
relationship.
Beatriz’s War (A Guerra da Beatriz)
Dir. Bety Reis, Luigi Acquisto | East Timor
| 2013 | 105 min
Saturday, May 23, 2015, 9:00 pm
Synopsis:
East Timor’s award winning first feature film, Beatriz’s
War(A Guerra da Beatriz), is the haunting,
passionate story of one woman’s conviction to remain true to the man she loves
and the country for which she fought. It
is a bold reworking of the 16th century French ‘Martin Guerre’ story. In this
adaptation, the original story is transposed to Portuguese Timor during the
Indonesian occupation of the small colony. Beatriz’s young husband disappears
during a brutal massacre by occupying Indonesian forces, sixteen years later
she is troubled by his return; is this mysterious stranger her husband or an
impostor?
*All films screen in Portuguese
with English subtitles.
All
screenings will take place at the University of Ottawa’s Alumni Auditorium
located at 85 University Private in the
Jock Turcot University Centre.
Tickets
will be available online and will be sold at the Box Office 30-minutes prior to
each screening. General admission is $13, or $9 for CFI members, seniors and
students.
Please
visit www.cfi-icf.ca for more information.
Cor-Ação: Portuguese Language Film Festival runs May
21 – 23.
