Sculpture in Pedro Costa's cinema

Abstract

Admired for the innovative language with which he constructs portraits of people living in extreme situations, Pedro Costa is a consensual figure in contemporary auteur cinema. Between 1997 and 2006, he produced what is considered by many to be his most relevant body of work: a set of three films, known as the "Fontainhas Trilogy", which includes Ossos (1997), No Quarto da Vanda (2000) and Juventude em Marcha (2006). Examples that allow us to identify some of the most unique aspects of his work. Produced around a connection between Cape Verde and Portugal, the three films explore a series of oppositions, between a poor peripheral neighbourhood and the centre of a European capital with signs of wealth; between distance and proximity, community and non-community, displacement and location, place and context. On a smaller scale, the substitution of the island for the neighbourhood, the relationship of the body with the wall appearing in spaces of reduced dimensions, simultaneously interior and exterior. Closed and open spaces open, private and public, personal and political. With this study it is proposed that the antagonism present in these works [...].