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Competition - Un filme falado

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- Manoel De Oliveira’s latest film stars Deneuve, Sandrelli and Malkovich. A Mediterranean cruise reveals the diversity of the EU

Two years after Porto della mia infanzia, veteran Portuguese filmmaker, Manoel De Oliveira is back in competition in Venice with Un Filme Falado. It is the latest stage in the Portuguese director’s European journey to compare the multiplicity of cultures within the countries that skirt the Mediterranean. Un film falado is a multi-lingual work where the actors speak their lines in French, English, Greek and Arabic. The languages illustrate the concept of a “European identity” as portrayed by De Oliveira by the single and multiple culture of the Old Continent.
The story takes us on a cruise during which a history professor and her daughter cross the Mediterranean to their final destination, Bombay, with stopovers at a number of key cities along their route. From a metaphorical point of view, the two women discover the roots and evolution of the Utopian concept of a truly united Europe on the sea-going Tower of Babel.
In spite of his advanced years, De Oliveira has, once again, shown us his idea of cinema with the freshness that is one of his most significant characteristics. Cinema, for the Portuguese filmmaker is an expression of logic, death and the renaissance of cultlure and art. “Cinema prepares you for life. It is one aspect of our existence and not a drug. Feelings are important but the heart must never rule the head.”
The film was made with a grant of around €300,000 from Eurimages, in light of the artistic quality of the project (scheme 2) and was produced by Paulo Branco’s two companies, Portugal’s Mandragoa Filmes and France’s Gémini, and co-produced by ICAM, the Portuguese Film, Audiovisual & Multimedia Institute.

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