O ANO DA MORTE DE RICARDO REIS
O.V. in Portuguese subtitled in Spanish and English
João Botelho, one of the most reliable directors with a solid career in Portuguese cinema, adapts José Saramago's novel The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis to the screen. This film follows the last year of life of Ricardo Reis, one of the heteronomous writers of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, on his return to Lisbon in 1936 after sixteen years of exile in Brazil. Here we find a country shaken by the rise of Hitler's Nazism, Mussolini's fascism, the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and the Salazar dictatorship. Botelho films exquisitely between light and shadow, with a visual richness reminiscent of the best of French impressionism and a tempo that sways the senses.
Direction: João Botelho
Script: João Botelho
Cinematography: João Ribeiro
Editing: João Braz
Sound: Jorge Saldanha
Cast: Chico Diaz, Luís Lima Barreto, Catarina Wallenstein, Victoria Guerra, Hugo Amaro, João Barbosa, Rui Morisson
Production: Alexandre Oliveira
Production Company: Ar de Filmes
João Botelho
Born in Portugal in 1949, João Botelho has been involved in filmmaking for 43 years and has made 18 films, including Os Maias: Cenas da Vida Romântica (2014), A Corte do Norte (2008) and Tempos Difíceis (1988)... He is one of today's most successful Portuguese filmmakers. His films have been screened at the most important international festivals, and have received awards such as the OCIC Award in the Forum section of the Berlinale in 1986 or the Fundação Mimmo Rotella Award at Venice in 2001. Full retrospectives of his work have been held at events such as Bergamo (1996), La Rochelle (1998), at the Cinémathèque de Luxembourg (2002) and at the LEFEEST (2018) in Lisbon. O ano da morte de Ricardo Reis is his latest work.