Vitalina Varela

Last updated
Vitalina Varela
Vitalina Varela poster.jpg
Directed by Pedro Costa
Written byPedro Costa
Vitalina Varela
Produced byAbel Ribeiro Chaves
Starring Vitalina Varela
Ventura
CinematographyLeonardo Simões
Edited byVítor Carvalho
João Dias
Release dates
  • 14 August 2019 (2019-08-14)(LFF)
  • 21 February 2020 (2020-02-21)(United States)
Running time
124 minutes
CountryPortugal
Languages Cape Verdean Creole
Portuguese
Budget€600,000 [1]
Box office$55,183 [2]

Vitalina Varela is a 2019 Portuguese drama directed by acclaimed director Pedro Costa. [3] It won the Golden Leopard and Best Actress Award at the 2019 Locarno Film Festival. [4] The film follows Vitalina Varela, a character who previously appeared in Pedro Costa's Horse Money .

Contents

It was selected as the Portuguese entry for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards after Portugal's first entry, Listen , was disqualified. [5]

Synopsis

Vitalina Varela follows its titular character, a Cape Verdean woman who arrives in Lisbon to meet her husband who's been gone for 40 years. As soon as she lands in the capital, she learns that he died three days ago. We follow Vitalina through the shanty town of Fontainhas as she navigates the traces that her husband left behind, discovering his secrets and his illicit life.

Release

On August 14, 2019, the film had its world premiered at the Locarno Film Festival where it won the Golden Leopard and the Leopard for Best Actress. The film was then released around the world, through many film festivals. The film had its US premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 6, 2019. On January 24, 2020, it was shown at the Sundance Film Festival.

Vitalina Varela was theatrically released in the United States by Grasshopper Film on February 21, 2020, and on DVD and Blu-ray on September 8, 2020.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 62 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Rigorous and beautifully composed, Vitalina Varela is a quietly absorbing drama whose placid surface belies hidden depths." [6] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 86 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "Universal acclaim". [7]

Sight & Sound considered it the tenth best film of 2019, even saying: "Varela’s performance is elemental, forged in fire. It never ceases to astonish just what miracles Costa is able to wrest from non-actors, or more accurately, coach them to wrest from themselves, but this is probably the most formidable performance, and the most potent screen presence, as yet in his work."

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pedro Costa</span> Portuguese film director

Pedro Costa is a Portuguese film director. He is best known for his sequence of films set in Lisbon, which focuses on the lives of the impoverished residents of a slum in the Fontainhas neighbourhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael Morais</span> Portuguese actor

Rafael Morais is an actor. He studied theater in Lisbon, Portugal and at the Stella Adler Academy in Los Angeles. Rafael Morais has worked with globally celebrated filmmakers such as Nick Hamm, Marco Martins, Pedro Cabeleira, Luis Prieto, João Canijo, Tiago Guedes, among others.

<i>Story of My Death</i> 2013 Spanish film

Story of My Death is a film directed by Albert Serra. It won the Golden Leopard at the 2013 Locarno International Film Festival.

<i>Arabian Nights</i> (2015 film) 2015 film

Arabian Nights is a 2015 internationally co-produced three-part drama film directed by Miguel Gomes and based on the One Thousand and One Nights, comprising Volume 1: The Restless One, Volume 2: The Desolate One and Volume 3: The Enchanted One. It was screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The film was also selected to be shown in the Wavelengths section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

<i>Horse Money</i> 2014 Portuguese film

Horse Money is a 2014 Portuguese film directed by Pedro Costa. It premiered in August 2014 at the Locarno International Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Direction. Horse Money is the fourth film in a sequence of films set in the Fontainhas slum region in Lisbon, and the second with character Venturas as the protagonist.

<i>Summer 1993</i> 2017 film

Summer 1993 is a 2017 Catalan-language Spanish drama film directed and written by Carla Simón. The film premiered in the Generation section at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the GWFF Best First Feature Award. It was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but in the end it was not nominated.

<i>A Land Imagined</i> 2018 Singaporean film

A Land Imagined is a 2018 neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Yeo Siew Hua. A Singapore-France-Netherlands co-production, the film tells the story of a police investigator who uncovers the truth behind the disappearance of a construction worker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">72nd Locarno Film Festival</span> Film festival in Locarno, Switzerland

The 72nd annual Locarno Festival was held from 7 August to 17 August 2019. The debut feature by Italian director-producer Ginevra Elkann's Magari opened the festival, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's To the Ends of the Earth was screened as closing film.

<i>Atlantis</i> (2019 film) 2019 film

Atlantis is a 2019 Ukrainian dystopian post-apocalyptic film directed by Valentyn Vasyanovych. It tells the story of a former soldier struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder in a near-future Ukraine, following a war with Russia.

<i>Instinct</i> (2019 film) 2019 film

Instinct is a 2019 Dutch drama film directed by Halina Reijn. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. It was selected as the Dutch entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

<i>Collective</i> (2019 film) 2019 film

Collective is a 2019 Romanian documentary film directed, written, produced and edited by Alexander Nanau. The film centers on the 2016 public health scandal following the Colectiv nightclub fire. The film follows dual stories of investigative journalists at the Romanian newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor uncovering public healthcare corruption and maladministration, and the government's response to the crisis at the Ministry of Health.

<i>Notturno</i> (film) 2020 documentary film

Notturno is a 2020 internationally co-produced documentary film directed by Gianfranco Rosi. It had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on 8 September 2020. It was selected as the Italian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

<i>Dear Comrades!</i> 2020 film

Dear Comrades! is a 2020 Russian historical drama film about the Novocherkassk massacre produced, co-written and directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. It was entered in competition at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. At Venice, the film won the Special Jury Prize. The film received a nomination for BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language and was selected as the Russian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, making the shortlist of fifteen films.

<i>Sun Children</i> 2020 film

Sun Children, also known as The Sun, is a 2020 Iranian drama film co-produced, co-written and directed by Majid Majidi. It was presented in competition at the 77th Venice International Film Festival, where child actor Rouhollah Zamani won the Marcello Mastroianni Award. It was selected as the Iranian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, making the shortlist of fifteen films.

<i>The Mole Agent</i> 2020 film

The Mole Agent is a 2020 internationally co-produced documentary film directed by Maite Alberdi. It was screened at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. At the 93rd Academy Awards, It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and was selected as the Chilean entry for Best International Feature Film, making the shortlist of fifteen films.

Vitalina Varela is a Cape Verdean actress.

<i>Hope</i> (2019 film) 2019 film by Maria Sødahl

Hope is a 2019 Norwegian semi-autobiographical drama film directed by Maria Sødahl, based on the experience she faced with her husband, director Hans Petter Moland, when, nine years earlier, she had received a terminal diagnosis of brain cancer and was given by doctors only three months to live. The film was selected as the Norwegian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, making the shortlist of fifteen films. The film premiered at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2019 and was first theatrically released in Norway on 22 November 2019.

<i>Two of Us</i> (2019 film) 2019 film

Two of Us is a 2019 French romantic drama film directed by Filippo Meneghetti. It was selected as the French entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, making the shortlist of fifteen films.

<i>Zeros and Ones</i> 2021 film

Zeros and Ones is a 2021 American-Italian thriller film written and directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Ethan Hawke.

Kristina Yordanova Grozeva is a Bulgarian filmmaker. She is best known for her cinematography on feature films such as The Lesson (2014), Glory (2016) and The Father (2019).

References

  1. "Cinema Must Be a Ritual: Pedro Costa Discusses "Vitalina Varela"". MUBI. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  2. "Vitalina (2020)". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  3. Weissberg, Jay (17 August 2019). "Locarno Film Review: 'Vitalina Varela'". Variety . Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  4. Corless, Kieron (3 September 2019). "Locarno 2019 report: films forged in fire". BFI . Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  5. "'Vitalina Varela' is the new Portuguese candidate for the Oscars". re Jerusalem. 21 December 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  6. "Vitalina Varela (2019)", Rotten Tomatoes , Fandango , retrieved 2022-11-29
  7. "Vitalina Varela". Metacritic. Retrieved 24 March 2020.