THE FIGHT AGAINST CANCER IN PORTUGAL

ANTÓNIO LOPES RIBEIRO
Portugal, Documentary, 1952, 16’

António Lopes Ribeiro, an established filmmaker whom we know from Amor de Perdição and O Pai Tirano, among many other titles, demonstrates in this 16-minute film that he was an unusual director. The Fight Against Cancer in Portugal is a powerful documentary about the creation, construction and implementation of the Portuguese Institute of Oncology in Lisbon. Images of the building, the people and the environment help to create a sense of security and trust in the institution, while a glance down the corridors makes us wander through the space. The camera's rigorous gaze and the light, full of contrast, summon up great cinema and make this film one of the great cinematic (re)discoveries of 2023.

Miguel Valverde, IndieLisboa

DECLARATION OF WAR

VALÉRIE DONZELLI
France, Fiction, 2011, 100’

In this story, the main characters are Romeo and Juliet, and you can immediately guess the tragedy of a romance. But this young couple are not willing to let themselves be defeated. and declares war on the tragedy of discovering that their 18-month-old son has a brain tumour.

The couple is played by film director Valérie Donzelli and her former partner Jérémie Elkaïm and the father of a son who has dealt with this illness in real life. Together wrote the script together and it is in the temporal distance of reality transposed into the film, in their complicity during the years of hospital, treatment and uncertainty, that the overwhelming energy of this fight resides, always to the sound of punk rock so that so that no-one fades away. Love and humour are the weapons to combat the darkest moments. That's the way to escape tragedy

Without hiding anything about the nature of the illness, the point of view is that of the parents (with the permanent and generous closeness of the family), and it is the complicity between the two that defines the unfolding of the narrative, composed of formal artifices that make it almost at the same time that the precision of the details suggests a documentary realism.

Margarida Moz, IndieLisboa

What does it mean to be at war? This film shows us how life changes when a child is diagnosed with cancer - it's all there: first the disbelief and shock, then the fear, panic, uncertainty...the various clashes ("we'll never survive this"), protecting the family, the strain on the couple's relationship, the countless losses (emotional, economic, etc.), the rollercoaster of the effects and treatments, the humanisation of care, the never-ending search for the best...but also the importance of verbal and verbal communication, of establishing a humane treatment, of the never-ending search for the best? ), the rollercoaster of the effects and results of treatments, the incessant search for the best... but also the importance of verbal and non-verbal communication, the humanisation of care, the establishment of a relationship of trust between the family and the healthcare team, which includes respect for spirituality.

Watching the film I found myself thinking how all these aspects were so well portrayed, so "inside" ... so it didn't surprise me in the end to realise that the main actors used their life stories here. It's definitely a film that should be seen and reflected on by anyone who wants to better understand the day-to-day life of paediatric cancer.

dra. Ana Lacerda, IPO Lisboa

LOVE STORY

ARTHUR HILLER
International, Fiction, 1970, 100’

At first glance, Love Story seems like a conventional love story. Oliver, a future lawyer and heir to a fortune, falls in love with Jenny, a young music student from a humble family. The two fall in love quickly and intensely and decide to get married, so that they can live that unexpected love to the full, despite all the cultural obstacles and the inevitable clash of classes. However, the stability of their life together is shaken by dramatic news: the protagonist is diagnosed with terminal leukaemia. All this is set to a theme by Francis Lai that has become popular, creating a symbolic identification in which the film can't live without the music and the music can't be mentioned without reference to the film.

In 1970, director Arthur Hiller decided to expose the public to the frustration, sadness and resignation of those suffering from cancer - but also to the anguish of those who don't suffer the effects in the first person. To remind us that there are no predictable love stories.

Jéssica Pestana, IndieLisboa

The film Love Story, produced five decades ago, confronts us with a theme that is still relevant today. In the context of the socio-cultural dynamics of New England in the early 1970s, marked by university life in Boston, two young people, in love, vibrant, full of projects, dealing with obstacles imposed by different social backgrounds, are suddenly confronted with illness and death.  Nothing prepares them for a dramatic end to a life full of promise. Although it is never clearly explained during the film, it is possible to infer that the protagonist has been diagnosed with a haematological tumour, which, due to its rapid evolution and lack of therapeutic prospects, we can conclude is probably acute leukaemia.

Although advances in haematological oncology will offer us a different perspective on this disease in 2024, the diagnosis of a potentially fatal situation at a stage of life when the idea of death is hardly conceivable is today, as it was then, extremely violent and essentially life-changing. Fortunately, a lot has changed in 50 years and for many of the patients who are diagnosed today, the therapeutic prospects are completely different. Above all, as in Love Story, there are no leukaemias for which no treatment is proposed and which are, without prior judgement, death sentences. 

prof. dr. Maria Gomes da Silva

Screening followed by a debate moderated by Joana Cruz, radio host, with prof. dr. Paula Chaves, Portuguese League Against Cancer volunteer, Nuno Artur Silva, former Secretary of State for Culture and founder of Produções Fictícias and Rui Miguel Ribeiro, poet and editor of Edições Saguão.

OUR BODY

CLAIRE SIMON
France, Documentary, 2023, 168’

Our bodies speak and in this public hospital in Paris there are people talking to them, with us, about their potential, their limits, life and the end. The most extraordinary thing about this documentary is that the conversations take a long time, because in a gynaecological clinic all the procedures are deeply connected to what it means to be a woman, trans and cis, at any age; what it means to be a mother or not to want to be one, or not to be able to be one at all. In this hospital, our bodies reproduce, change and reveal themselves in stories, identities, anxieties and uncertainties. Biomedicine is not enough to resolve all the issues, but the people who work there, those who go there, and those who film who go there, and those who film, make that space more cosy and intimate, less frightening. frightening.

In this hospital, where new lives are announced and endings are anticipated, every word spoken, drawn, translated, no matter how harsh its meaning, is uttered with a respect that guarantees that respect that guarantees that if all else fails, the dignity of the person will be preserved. preserved. The enormous beauty of this film is its humanity. And the generous proximity of the camera adds a layer to this sharing, which in the end is revealed to be even closer even closer when the director's body also becomes part of the film.

Margarida Moz, IndieLisboa

The documentary Our body takes place in a public hospital in Paris specialising in women's health, where patients come with various problems throughout the life cycle (conception; birth; adolescence; adulthood and end-of-life). People of different ages, ethnicities, social backgrounds and levels of education come to this public hospital in Paris, much like any other in Portugal. Each person carries a story and a body. A body with a history, in which health professionals catalogue diagnoses, discuss therapeutic options as a team and accept their limits and those of science.

Communication in health is particularly important for a number of reasons. The main ones are the need to understand the other person and the need for them to understand us. Without these premises, respect for the patient's autonomy and consent cannot be guaranteed. The language barrier between healthcare professionals and some patients is also a major and constant challenge. 

Communication is fundamental in the health professions, because in essence they are relationship professions, and so communication can gain therapeutic value for the patient. During the patient-healthcare professional interaction there is constant sharing.

The moment when an oncological diagnosis is passed on is extremely difficult for those who receive it and therefore requires skill and training on the part of those who pass it on. Throughout the documentary, it's clear that breaking bad news to patients also has an impact on healthcare professionals. They experience emotions of compassion and empathy that come through in their words, but also in their gestures. The palliative care doctor who observes her patient and talks about stopping treatment that no longer seems to be working. This interaction is overwhelming, but acceptance and peace emerge in both interlocutors.  

Throughout the documentary, the high technology (robot surgeries and in vitro insemination) and the clinical discussions between health professionals seem aseptic and depersonalised, but this contrasts with the humanity revealed in the health professionals and the patients. This documentary undoubtedly captures the essence of a hospital, the humanity that lives between those who care and treat and those who suffer and are vulnerable.

Ana Sofia Simões, IPO Lisboa

DEAR DIARY

NANNI MORETTI
Italy, Fiction, 1993, 100’

From the extraordinary Nanni Moretti comes this film in three episodes that go from the cure of lymphatic cancer to its discovery, in the exact opposite direction. Relaxation, lightness and a return to life takes the filmmaker on a walk through the main neighbourhoods of Rome, his hometown, as if rediscovering life and the places that were important to him - the first episode. The corrosive humour of the second episode, set on various Italian islands (Stromboli, Panarea, Lipari), shows Moretti rediscovering himself and his idiosyncrasies. The last episode "The Doctors" is about the discovery of the disease through a journey through the Italian medical system and the doctors' various disparate diagnoses in search of the disease associated with the symptoms. As a film divided into parts, it is through a cohesive organic structure that we follow the course of the cancer disease and its past, present and future effects. With Moretti we always know that even the most difficult subject will always be handled with sweetness and heart.

Miguel Valverde, IndieLisboa

Medicine that is neither science nor art

Why did Moretti put the Vespa, the islands and the doctors together in the same film? You may know, but I don't. That's why I'm taking a chance: the three parts combine to show the absurdity that culminates in the medical institution. 

The strange dialogues he engages in with strangers as Vespa glides through urban areas that have lost their meaning, the disturbing degradation of the monument to the artist Pasolini, the incoherence of the friend with whom he discusses island delusions and, above all, the confrontation of the telluric Stromboli with the details of a soap opera are exemplary absurdities.

However, his next journey, through the offices of renowned medical specialists in search of a solution to a disease that tormented him, was so far from expectations that it was even more absurd and, unlike the previous ones, which could have been allegorical, this one was very real. It's a story that only doesn't end in drama because the treatment of the disease in question is one of the great advances in oncology of the 20th century.

Four hundred years after Molière, Nanni Moretti describes, because he lived it, a medicine that is neither science nor art, just pose, presumption and business. Patiently, the author of the diary endures all the absurdities and, in the end, he simply records what he has learnt about doctors. In the meantime, his travelling through the city, the islands and the doctors had repeatedly questioned us. Subtly, he even emphasised the benefits of a national health service and a family doctor.

dr. João Oliveira, IPO Lisboa

THE FAREWELL

LULU WANG
USA / China, Fiction, 2019, 100’

Billi is a young Chinese-American woman with a future yet to decipher. One day she discovers that her grandmother Nai Nai has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The rest of the family decides to hide this diagnosis from Nai Nai and, in order to reunite the whole family one last time in China, organises a hasty wedding between one of her grandchildren and his recent girlfriend. Billi is against this decision, she just wants to say goodbye, to overcome her grief together with Nai Nai, in a way that seems natural to her, but she has been deprived of this possibility. Moved by the moral ambiguity she feels about her family's decision, Billi leaves for China to see her grandmother one last time.

Based on director Lulu Wang's personal experience, it shows us the humanity and love that are present in such a complex decision.

Rui Mendes, IndieLisboa

This film is about the power of convictions and what they do to justify and sustain our lives. To what extent can lies serve a purpose? How far should you go with a charitable lie? It's a story that shows us how there are limits to the ability to predict the future, what is called defining the prognosis, even with all the technology that modern medicine has at its disposal. Statistics, which gives us probabilities, is just as valid at the averages and medians as it is at the extremes. And it's extremes that this film talks about for the hour and a half it takes place. What we know about psychological adaptation to a cancer diagnosis tells us that it's better to be able to summon up the "fighting spirit" in patients. But if that spirit is already in the person, do they need another push to find even more reasons to "fight"? After all, with the truth or the lie, who are we protecting? The messenger or the receiver? Who is more afraid? Who tells the truth or who knows what they'd rather not have to know? The film lives between extremes that are meant to be opposites. But there is a middle ground, a middle point, which has to be found in the everyday clinic, in the encounter between people with rights and obligations. More important than what you say is how you say it.

dr Fernando Leal da Costa, IPO Lisboa

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF BIRDS

CATARINA VASCONCELOS
Portugal, Documentary / Fiction, 2020, 101’

One of the breakthrough films of recent years in Portugal is the most awarded film of all time at film festivals, entitled to be the Portuguese representative under consideration for the Oscars, screened on Netflix and, last but not least, with one of the most successful commercial premieres worthy of study.

That said, The Metamorphosis of Birds, Catarina Vasconcelos' first feature, is a solar film that works like an information puzzle in which all the pieces fit together in absurd and uncompromising perfection, as does every rigorous shot in the film, every word narrated and spoken, every sound intoned. The story of a family, through its different generations, who represent each other, transforms this family film into an epic that reinvents itself to the point where it always moves us at a different point and according to each viewer's own state of mind. And this is where the film soars and where the talent of the author is shown, who has the gift of creating an empathetic relationship between each film and those who watch it. 

Perfection at the end of the IPO Lisbon 100 Years Film Showcase.

Miguel Valverde, IndieLisboa

A love story blessed by God. Henrique and Beatriz meet and build a relationship with many challenges to overcome. The fear of isolation, uncertainty, distance and loss are a constant in a relationship that lives and survives the distance and hardships of life. A relationship marked by distance, but capable of bearing fruit, their six children help to maintain and perpetuate the flame and look to the future. The building of a large family and the development of bonds that are established and developed with each of them in a special way.

A story that has a narrative with intense and profound dialogues based on memories, recollections and the sharing of events that are narrated and transcribed in letters that, although they alleviate the longing of distance, express the pain and suffering of loss and simultaneously nurture the relationship in proximity and dependence.

Beatriz, a special woman, tries to illuminate her daily life through her maternal role and her intense contact with nature. Always caring in a discreet and simple way, but also seeking to find her inner peace with nature.

Children grow up and question their parental role. They too, each in their own way, have to deal with the loss; of the father who is not present in their daily lives, of the childhood that is fading into time and of the profound changes in social life.

The presence of "still lifes" that in photography in a unique and artistic way accompany with melody the internal language of each one of us, in contact with our metamorphoses.

It talks about the cycle of life, the stories and memories of those who leave, as well as those who stay and the way in which they elaborate and grow, and this process is transgenerational.  Their descendants seek to make sense of all these experiences, building a legacy based on the bonds established between parents, children and grandchildren, which is renewed with each new cycle of life.

The narrative of The Metamorphosis of Birds is also a way of paying homage to Triz, and to all those who leave and remain with us in the baggage they leave us.

dr Maria de Jesus Moura, IPO Lisboa