Ruínas

The prologue is unambiguous: It is the spectacle of a high-rise block being blown up. Then there is a crowd in a cemetery, gathered around the grave of a certain Henriqueta Souza, a revered woman whose tumultuous biography is retold for us and who, as we are to learn, has kept the head of her dead lover as a relic. The aim of the film is clear: What is the relationship between places and memories and between narratives and spaces? Other sites and other buildings follow, all of which are abandoned: a silent neighbourhood, a restaurant, a theatre, a seaside resort, a church, an abandoned villa and a factory in ruins. Today's inhabitants are invisible, so these places are situated in a time suspended by the exclusive power of the still. There are some live beings though, those of yesterday: Men's and women's voices, from one place or another, recite. They tell of the dishes of a rich 17th-century menu, partridge and broth; an epistolary exchange on the subject of debt; a list of obsolete medical protocols and even workers' songs. Subtle variations on the close links between writing and spaces which subvert illustrative evidence and set traps for ordinary principles. (Jean-Pierre Rehm)

This film is screened together with Cordão Verde.