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Vitalina Varela

Directed by Pedro Costa

Portugal • 2019 • 124 min. • In Portuguese with English subtitles

Showtimes & Past Screenings

Vitalina Varela

Directed by Pedro Costa

Portugal • 2019 • 124 mins.

in Portuguese with English subtitles

In this follow-up to Costa’s incredible Horse Money (a PIFF38 selection), Vitalina Varela, a widow from Cape Verde, travels to the Fontainhas neighborhood of Lisbon for her husband’s funeral after 25 long years apart—having learned of his death only three days before her arrival. Vitalina must piece together the last two decades of his life, as she encounters his friends, co-workers, neighbors, and the local priest (portrayed by Costa regular Ventura) in her search for answers, closure, and a new beginning in Fontainhas. Bridging past and present with his haunting, shadow-heavy visual compositions that conjure the chiaroscuro paintings of the Renaissance more than anything in contemporary cinema, Costa sculpts a quiet, intense ghost story around Vitalina’s unforgettable portrayal of a woman unmoored, but seeking peace. A Grasshopper Film release.

This film is streaming online as part of our virtual programming for PIFF 2.0 and can be viewed online anytime.

This film is screening for FREE for NWFC members as part of PIFF 2.0.

Genres: Drama

Appears in: PIFF 2.0

The Northwest Film Center recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands. These include the Willamette Tumwater, Clackamas, Kathlemet, Molalla, Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River. We also want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence.