No Quarto da Vanda (2000)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

Pedro Costa

Release Date:

2 March 2001 (Portugal)

Genre:

Documentary

Awards:

5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Lena Duarte
Vanda Duarte	...	Herself
Zita Duarte
Pedro Lanban
António Moreno
Paulo Nunes
Fernando Paixão

Also Known As:

In Vanda's Room (International: English title)
Nella stanza di Vanda (Italy)

Runtime:

Portugal:170 min | Switzerland:179 min

Country:

Portugal | Germany | Switzerland | Italy

Language:

Portuguese

Certification:

France:U | Portugal:M/18

Filming Locations:

Lisbon, Portugal

Company:

Contracosta Produções

Movie Connections:

Follows Ossos (1997)

Ghost people

This movie follows somehow in the wake of the Eye Cinema or Cinema of Truth (Dziga Vertov, Jean Rouch etc.) though with a much different and unusual subject: the everyday life of a group of drug addicts living in a degraded quarter of the outskirts of Lisbon. It's performed almost entirely by non-actors I mean by the drug addicts themselves who live before the camera as if it was not there, in a remarkable and genuine display of realism which impresses deeply our minds and feelings. These people whom we see verging slowly towards their own moral and physical ruin move before our eyes like ghosts still endowed with conscience and sentiments, capable of reasoning about their own disgrace in a very lucid way which makes us feel that we are in front of human beings after all, worth of our comprehension and compassion not to mention the fact of our own responsibility for that situation in this strange society we live in. This is the best movie about drug addicts I've ever seen and it should be seen mainly by those who persist in ignoring this problem or who think that it can be solved by fighting production and distribution of drugs instead of trying to fight consumption I mean deviating people chiefly youngsters from the inclination to consume drugs which will allow them to evade hardship and dullness of life. Although if it will be necessary to reform society for that purpose. The camera has apparently no leading role in this movie almost limiting itself to show us those people living (?) before our eyes. Their gestures, words, looks and above all their silences have so much weight on our hearts and minds that they are almost unbearable. After seeing this movie we can but feel that we all must do something and quickly.