Second screnning of the film programme Manoel de Oliveira and Portuguese Cinema 3, parallel to the exhibition of the same name, which will compare Manoel de Oliveira's complete works from 1991 to 2015 with other contemporary Portuguese film productions. The screening will feature Alberto Seixas Santos' Mal (1999), presented by the filmmaker and professor Amarante Abramovici.

18 MAR | WED | 5:00 PM
Presented by Amarante Abramovici
MAL
Alberto Seixas Santos | POR, ESP, BRA, IRL | 1999 | 85 min

In a city, stories and lives unfold and intertwine like a web. The story of Cathy and Pedro, of Daniel and his friend. The story of the Cruz couple, of the grandfather who comes to Lisbon in search of his runaway granddaughter. The story of this abandoned child who comes to announce the end of the world. And everyone will wait for a new dawn. “Mal”, which was screened at the Venice Film Festival, is a film by Alberto Seixas Santos that once again reflects on the risks, conflicts, incongruities, and general malaise of contemporary urban life. Focusing on the relationship of a couple in Lisbon heading for a dramatic breakup, Seixas Santos episodically creates characters and situations from a cruel and cynical, perverse and violent everyday life, which is a kind of institutionalized evil in life on the eve of the new millennium. Drugs, AIDS, terrorism, mysticism, and pedophilia feature in a dry, disenchanted, and disturbing urban chronicle, with English actress Pauline Cadell and Rui Morisson in the leading roles.