A morte de uma cidade

Synopsis

In the heart of the Bairro Alto, in Lisbon city centre, an old printing workshop is demolished to make way for luxury apartments. Seeing this demolition as a perfect image for the death of a certain Lisbon in the wake of the financial crisis and the ensuing real estate and touristic boom, João Rosas shoots an urban diary portraying the daily life of the construction site and those working there.

The dying days of an old city, engulfed like so many others by neoliberal urban development. An evocative tale of the director’s relationship with the city and a paean to workers' dignity.

Biography and Films

João Rosas (Lisbon, 1981) studied communication and film in Lisbon and Bologna and won a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation to study at the London Film School.

Author of three collections of short stories and several short films, including My Mother is a Pianist (2005), Birth of a City (2009), Entrecampos (2012) and Maria do Mar (2015), which premiered at Locarno and won awards at festivals in Portugal, Spain and Brazil. Catavento (2020) won Best Short Film at BAFICI 2021 and earned a Special Jury Mention at the Brive Film Festival. A morte de uma cidade is his debut feature film.

Tie-in Activity

To tie in with screening of the film A morte de uma cidade, l'Alternativa and Nexes Interculturals are organising a Migrantour in Spanish on Wednesday 15 November at 6 pm.