Victor Gonçalves, whose masterful first film A Girl in Summer is considered a touchstone in Portuguese cinema, has returned to filmmaking after a 25 year hiatus with this, a poetic exploration of memory and grief. It follows the interior life of Hugo (Filipe Duarte), a 40-something civil servant who has become obsessed with old 8mm footage he has discovered with the belongings of Antonio, his recently deceased boss. These newly sparked memories unexpectedly bring back others, including those of the last time he saw a woman he loved. Wandering through an abandoned flat with dark rooms inhabited by ghosts, Hugo tries to remember the final days of his lost friend and lover. Throughout we witness how Hugo’s past has come to smother his ability to imagine and create a future for himself – has he wasted his life? A tender, contemplative and haunting wonder that is an elegant study of love, loss and loneliness.

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