Portugal, Switzerland
Documentary/fiction

Nominated for European Short Film – Prix Vimeo 2024

After a violent police raid in a poor clandestine neighbourhood in Lisbon, a 7-year-old girl seeks to find her missing older brother. At the same time, a young newly released ex-convict tries to start anew, free from a life of crime. The fate of these two will cross in the worst way.

Written & directed by: Basil Da Cunha
Produced by: Basil Da Cunha, Edgar Medina
Cinematography: Vasco Viana
Editing: Basil Da Cunha
Sound: Rafael Cardoso
Cast: Jason Varela (ex-convict), Camila Diniz (little girl), residents of the Reboleira neighbourhood

Statement of the director:
The film follows the intersecting stories of Camila, a young girl desperately looking for her older brother, and Jysone, a young adult looking to change his life.
The film is an opportunity to delve into the back streets, inside the tents, meeting the inhabitants who make up a community where the strength and vitality of the people are proportional to the difficulties they face.
I decided to work with a particular grammar: the long shot. It's about experiencing a space-time, but also discovering the chaos and poetry of the architecture. And above all, the richness that emanates from each of the characters we meet along the way. This presentation of the space is a portrait where fiction and reality cohabit in a strangely poetic way.
The narrative arc is built around two characters: Camila, a charming child looking for her brother, and Jysone, a young adult who goes to his first day at a new job. But the violence of a Portuguese society where clear inequality reigns will knock on our characters' door, showing how the life of an outlaw is not always the result of choice, but the result of an unfair and violent sociocultural reality for those who are not born in a golden cradle.

Production:
Arquipélago Filmes
www.arquipelagofilmes.com

World Sales:
AGENCIA - Portuguese Short Film Agency
www.curtas.pt

Selected at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival