12/10/2006

After last week's release of Trance by Teresa Villaverde (see news), an entirely different domestic production opens in Portuguese cinemas today.

Directed by José Sacramento, Filme da Treta is being released on 31 screens through LNK, one of the biggest openings ever for a local title.

Such a large-scale distribution is easily justified by the background of the project. The film is based on the play, Conversa da Treta, which was one of the greatest theatre hits in the 1990s, and which originated after several radio sketches and a TV series.

More than a synonym of commercial success, characters Tony and Zézé – played by top comedians José Pedro Gomes and António Feio – became part of many peoples’ lives and their nonsensical one-liners could frequently be heard in daily conversations.

Filme da Treta, produced by Leonel Vieiras's Stopline Films without any support from national film institute ICAM, is not a straightforward adaptation of hilarious conversations between the two characters, but rather an expansion of their universe, with the introduction of other characters. The film is a likely contender for the most seen domestic title of 2006.

A far cry from the massive distribution channels of Filme da Treta is the theatrical release of João Nicolau's multi-award winning short Bird of Prey (see news). The film is screening in one theatre in Lisbon together with French title The Snake Has Two Lives by Hélier Cisterne.

Bird of Prey is being released through O Som E A Fúria.