In modern-day Lisbon, two art students drift through a weekend of escapism and late-capitalist burnout. Sofia and Amandine’s toxic friendship is put to the test when Amandine crosses paths with Guilherme, a pretentious artist, at an independent exhibition. Kiss and Be Friends is an acerbic comedy exploring intimacy, identity, and a generation driven by irony, anxiety, and Instagram.
The city is Lisbon, the protagonists are two young women—one Portuguese, the other French—the lingua franca is English, the setting is gentrified, the milieu is artistic and academic, the tone is satirical, the characters embody a range of stereotypes, and the result is a biting comedy that portrays a city going through a transformation. From start to finish, Kiss and Be Friends defies its title. In fact, the narrative structures and situations suggest we are dealing with a romantic comedy, where the foreign and the traditional meet in an exotic setting. But this romantic façade is, in a systematic (and even cruel) manner, stripped away with every interaction, every duality, every game of manipulation or pretence. This is not a film about love and friendship, or rather, it is so by contradiction. Ana Baldini and Roly Witherow dissect the superficiality of human relationships in a city (and a society) that operates according to notions of utilitarianism, producing a moral tale about the value of authenticity. (Ricardo Vieira Lisboa)
