Winner of the Golden Leopard for Best Film and Best Actress prizes at the Locarno Film Festival, and an official selection of the Sundance, New York and Toronto Film Festival, Vitalina Varela is the masterful new film from Pedro Costa, the acclaimed director of Horse Money, Colossal Youth, In Vanda’s Room and Casa de Lava. Vitalina Varela, 55-year-old, Cape Verdean, arrives in Lisbon three days after her husband’s funeral. She’s been waiting for her plane ticket for more than 25 years.
Reprising her role from Costa’s previous film Horse Money, the titular Vitalina ruminates on her tragic marriage while confronting her husband’s ghost. Vitalina’s memories are interspersed with the post-colonial predicament of Cape Verdeans seeking a place in modern-day Portugal. Rendered in lingering chiaroscuro camerawork, Costa's film once again captures a fragile, ambiguous world and imbues it with stirring humanity. (Pedro Costa, Portugal, 2019, 124 min.) In Portuguese with English subtitles