IndieLisboa’s 20th edition is marked by several returns. Besides the round number, we celebrate this festival’s milestone with the return of various names which have been part of the festival’s programme over the last few years. These are filmmakers whose work we follow and that we now welcome back with open arms.
Bas Devos returns to the festival with the film that won the Encounters section at the last Berlinale. Here is a love story that brings two characters together by chance, forcing us to pay attention to the here and now. It is through the encounter between Stefan and Shuxiu that the director exposes the importance of the connection between humans or natural beings. It will repeat on Sunday, 8 pm, at Cinema Ideal.
One year after presenting the short The Sower of Stars at IndieLisboa, Lois Patiño returns with the feature film Samsara. This time in the International Competition, Patiño shows us the concept of the bardo in Buddhism, a state of transition between death and reincarnation. The film explores this passage in an experience of light and sound. The last chance to see it is on May 5, at 5:00 pm, at Cinema São Jorge.
Also the debut feature film by young filmmaker Lola Quivoron is competing at IndieLisboa. After having been in the festival in 2016, with the short film Au Loin, Baltimore, Quivoron is now showing Rodeo, one of the winners of the section Un Certain Regard, of the Cannes 2022 Festival. The urban western tells us about Julia, her meaning of freedom and the male world she tries to fit into. We interviewed the director, in a partnership with CINEblog from IFILNOVA, and the film will be in theatres soon.
After having been in the International Competition in 2021, with Nous, Alice Diop brings us this time Saint Omer, her first fiction film. It tells the story of Rama, a literature professor who, pregnant, travels to Saint-Omer to follow the trial of an immigrant student accused of abandoning her daughter. The film can also be seen tomorrow for the last time, at 7:15 pm, at Cinema São Jorge.
It is with the short film Watch the Fire or Burn Inside, from the Silvestre section, that the duo of French filmmakers Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinil return to IndieLisboa, after having had a full retrospective at the 2019 edition. The film treats fire as an element of rebellion and purification, used here by the director herself to burn the world as a response to injustice. It is featured in the Silvestre Curtas 4 screening, which repeats on Saturday May 6, at 4:45 pm, at Cinema São Jorge.
