The Metamorphosis of Birds

classified U S
Film

Please note: This was screened in March 2022

Director
Catarina Vasconcelos
Cast
Manuel Rosa, João Móra, Ana Vasconcelos
Details
101 mins, Subtitled, 2022, Portugal
Primary language
Portuguese

Portuguese director Catarina Vasconcelos reflects on topics of loss, tragedy and love in this family history documentary-memoir which won the FIPRESCI Prize Encounters section in the 2020 Berlinale.

This beautifully shot video essay focuses on the relationship between her grandparents. Her grandfather Henrique would spend long periods at sea; meanwhile her grandmother Beatriz stayed at home to look after their six children. Then one day, Beatriz suddenly died. The abrupt death of Vasconcelos' grandmother echoes through time, ultimately affecting the meeting of the director's parents.

With gorgeous cinematography shot on16mm film, this is a sumptuous magical realist spectacle that allows us to reflect on how the past informs the present.


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