Utopia - 4th UK Portuguese Film Festival

Filmville proudly announces UTOPIA – the Fourth UK Portuguese Film Festival. Showcasing an exciting international line-up selected around the thematic of Film, Memory and Landscape, this is the most ambitious UKPFF yet, expanded to include mostly recent productions and emerging talent. The programme combines contemporary works by renowned directors such as London Film Festival habitués Zézé Gamboa (The Hero) and João Pedro Rodrigues (Two Drifters), along with productions by new directors Portuguese Salomé Lamas and Brazilian Marcelo Lordello. The selection weaves together a cross-cultural narrative of surprising connections, presenting a rare opportunity to discover more about the artistic and cultural singularity of production from countries such as Angola, Portugal, Guinea Bissau and Brazil.

Among this year’s festival selection is Emmy Award-nominated Brazilian actor Lázaro Ramos, who plays 'Joãozinho' in Zezé Gamboa's The Great Kilapy - a witty portrait of the last decade of Portuguese rule in Angola. In association with their Pop: Images of Desire, Barbican Cinema will be showing a one-off special archive session from Portuguese New Cinema pioneer Antonio da Cunha Telles. His first feature The Circle stood out for its unusual format and thorough photography. Other highlights are the playfully over-baked melodrama about an ill-fated preoperative transsexual in João Pedro Rodrigues and João Guerra da Mata’s (To Die Like a Man) The Last Time I Saw Macao, which received Special Mention at the Locarno International Film Festival 2012 and Best Debut with honorable mention at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, João Viana’s The Battle of Tabato, both showing at ICA. Best First Feature and Best National Film at Doclisboa 2012 Salomé Lamas’ No Man’s Land reveals the shocking story behind the scenes of a hit man’s life in the Portuguese colonial war era.

Once again in partnership with TAP airlines, the festival is offering two return flights to Portugal. The winners will be announced by Christmas. The Portuguese Embassy in London and Instituto Camões in Portugal support the event.

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