Hovering Over the Water

This film by Joao Cesar Monteiro follows Laura, a widow from Rome on holiday on the Algarve coast. While sunbathing she finds a wounded man in the surf; she takes him home, and when he revives he tells his story and the attraction between them grows. Then an armed group appears. The film does not run its narrative as a plot. The conversations are long, the scenes still and the threat stays distant for a long time; the real interest is how much two strangers can tell each other. Monteiro's known manner holds here too: slow pace, literary dialogue and weight given to composition. Laura Morante leads. The sea and the light are the principal visual elements. Who it's for: those who like Portuguese auteur cinema and static narrative. Who it's not for: viewers expecting suspense; the film uses genre elements but never accelerates them.