The Portuguese director’s most radical film brings a home to the ‘protagonist’
August returns to haunt the cinema of Miguel Gomes. In an interview with Zoom, the Portuguese author, sitting in a garden with lots of greenery – “It’s my in-laws’ house,” he informs – says that July and August represent the height of summer in the Northern Hemisphere – so, in Portugal. “People are happier because of the holidays, they let themselves go.”
It was so inside That dear month of August, 2008, about researchers and technicians who traveled through the interior of Portugal, in search of sounds, recording music from different regions. The case is different now. Diários de Otsoga, which premiered on Thursday 21st in Brazilian cinemas, was recorded during the pandemic and marks an unusual co-direction by Gomes with his partner, Maureen Fazendeiro.
It came from the documentary and, for the record, it was during the One Thousand and One Nights, in Cannes, which Miguel, at 3 in the morning, asked her to marry him. “The film began in a conversation with director João Pedro Rodrigues. He wondered what would be possible in the lockdown. In the first isolation it was still possible, with great care, to assist people,” he reflected.
layers
The shot, he adds, came from a conversation at the home of Crista Alfaiate, who was Sherazade de One Thousand and One Nights. “It was her and her boyfriend, a stage actor. We were all positive and talking about what to do. The idea for the film began to take shape. An isolated group in a house and unable to share a kiss.” It sounds simple, but obviously being a Miguel Gomes film – from Taboo and the trilogy One thousand and one nights -, The Otsoga Diaries It has, as they say, layers.
The title itself – Otsoga is August in reverse and the film is narrated in reverse. It starts with the group leaving the house and ends with their arrival. “The house is an important character. We were lucky to find it. It belongs to one of the producers’ uncles. Maureen and I love making a film. Even on a very small budget, we didn’t want to. Daily it was just another of the artists’ initiatives during the pandemic, to try to break the isolation. We shot on 16mm, a very small team, but the film remained as we saw it. Bright – possibly the brightest film made during the pandemic. There is some hope in that, of course. “
All these ideas emerged during the preparation. The house, the reduced crew, the diary format, the three actors, two men and one woman. One of them is Carlotto Cotta, known for having the most beautiful male face in Portuguese cinema. The other is Crista’s boyfriend, João Monteiro. The kiss, which would be quite trivial – a man and a woman kissing, even if they were two men, or two women – became the “x” of the matter. “For safety reasons, we had a health officer on set to make sure there was no danger of contagion.” The kiss was filmed on the last day, but with the reversed timeline of otsoga, it could go to the beginning, to the center. “We have chosen the right time”.
improvisation
In the first week Miguel and Maureen were alone in the house with the screenwriter Mariana Ricardo, who has been collaborating with him for some time, writing his films. The little work – in size, not quality – ended up gaining importance. He went to Cannes, to the Directors’ Fortnight. The most interesting thing is that the film was not actually written. “A lot of stuff came from the house, and it was already there. When the actors came in, in the second week, we started improvising.”
Miguel Gomes is a demanding author, but he has never felt so free. He agrees that it is his more radical film than him. He has replaced his adaptation of Euclides da Cunha, Os Sertões, which he is playing in attack. The next big movie will be shot in the East. Other One thousand and one nights? “No, but the myth will be at the center of the plot, it’s always in my films”.
Source: Terra
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