Ossos

The Fontainhas neighbourhood on the edge of Lisbon. A very young couple have had a baby and neither of them can look after it. The mother wants to die. The father takes the baby out into the street, first to beg with it and then to give it away. Clotilde, who cleans in the neighbourhood, intervenes. Pedro Costa directs. It is the first of the films he made in Fontainhas; In Vanda's Room and Colossal Youth followed, and the three are grouped together. Emmanuel Machuel is the cinematographer. This is the only one of the three shot on 35mm; the later two were made with a digital camera and almost no crew. The method rests on the real place. Fontainhas was a shanty district built by immigrants from Cape Verde and was later demolished. Most of the cast lived there and play situations close to their own lives. The narrative gives no information. The characters are not named, the relationships are not explained, the scenes are not joined; the film leaves the viewer in the neighbourhood as a stranger. Light is the real subject. The rooms are dark, the light through a doorway is the only source, and the faces are mostly half in shadow. Who it is for: viewers who follow Pedro Costa and formally severe art cinema. Who it is not for: there is almost no dialogue, no plot to follow, and the film helps the viewer at no point.