31/03/2015 - The Portuguese film Capitão Falcão by João Leitão will open the gathering on 23 April

Having been reinvigorated and currently in the process of simplifying its offering, IndieLisboa, one of the most exciting festivals in the Portuguese film landscape, will be back in the country’s capital between 23 April and 3 May in order to celebrate its 12^th edition.

According to the organisers, Nuno Sena and Miguel Valverde, in previous editions “there was a lot on offer and a great many sections, which meant that viewers had to choose,” which led to a situation where the audience was spread too thinly and attendance figures dropped. Now it is time to go off in search of new audiences. The 2015 edition will introduce two new sections: Silvestre, which merges three of the festival’s old sections; and Boca do Inferno, which features midnight screenings, making for more extreme and unusual cinematic experiences. At the same time, the Herói Independente section is being retained (this year it is dedicated to Mia Hansen-Love and Whit Stillman – read more), and also making a comeback are the traditional competition sections for shorts and features, while there will also be particular attention paid to national movies.

The European-produced films featuring among the 11 in competition are the Romanian title Aferim! [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile] by Radu Jude, which won an award at the most recent Berlinale; Slovakian film Koza [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský
film profile] by Ivan Ostrochovsky; France’s Quand je ne dors pas [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Tommy Weber; the Turkish-German co-production Sivas [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Kaan Mujdeci; and the documentaries A German Youth [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Jean-Gabriel Périot and Ming of Harlem: Twenty One Storeys in the Air by Phillip Warnell.

The Portuguese competition includes 20 titles, including four features: the documentaries Gipsofila by Margarida Leitão, Uma Rapariga da sua Idade by Márcio Laranjeira and The Wolf’s Lair by Catarina Mourão (presented at the latest Rotterdam Festival), and the fiction film Os Olhos de André by António Borges Correia.

National production will also be very much present out of competition, with the documentaries Fish Tail [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Joaquim Pinto and Nuno Leonel (presented at the most recent Berlinale) and O Medo à Espreita by Marta Pessoa, which is about the archives of the political police during the Salazar dictatorial regime. 

Another Portuguese movie about the old regime – but this time in the guise of a send-up – will open the gathering: Capitão Falcão [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. The new film by João Leitão stars Gonçalo Waddington and David Chan. Here, the duo play a kind of fascist version of Batman and Robin, fighting the “baddies” who are striving for freedom and democracy. The thankless task of playing Salazar falls to José Pinto. The presentation of Capitão Falcão at IndieLisboa also marks the start of the theatrical distribution of this Individeos production.

One of the other interesting highlights on the programme is the movie Aqui, em Lisboa, a production by the festival itself, which invited directors Dominga Sotomayor, Denis Côté, Gabriel Abrantes and Marie Losier to film four stories set in Lisbon (read more).

The highly acclaimed Force Majeure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile] by Ruben Östlund will have the honour of bringing the gathering to a close on 3 May.

(Translated from Spanish)