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RELEASES Portugal

Ruiz explores Mysteries of Lisbon

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Chilean director Raúl Ruiz’s Mysteries of Lisbon [+see also:
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, one of the most ambitious Portuguese productions of recent years, is finally opening on domestic screens. The film, which refuses to be pigeonholed in terms of content or form, is adapted from the same-named 1854 novel by Camillo de Castelo Branco, an exponent of literary romanticism.

Producer Paulo Branco (Alfama Filmes) once again challenged Ruiz to take on another large-scale project. Together they had previously adapted the work of Marcel Proust, among others. Released in 1999, Time Regained was a visually sumptuous fresco starring an international cast, combining anachronistic narrative time and mixing spaces of action. In Mysteries of Lisbon, we see the same aesthetic approach and the same labyrinthine style.

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In a video interview shown on the film’s official website, Ruiz says that screenwriter Carlos Saboga has pulled off the complicated task of bringing together all the aspects of the original work “without losing practically anything”. The result is a 4hr 26min-long film, which will also have a television version consisting of six one-hour-long episodes.

The various interwoven plots include the story of Pedro Da Silva (played by 2007 Shooting Star Afonso Pimentel), a young orphan whom we follow from his childhood in an orphanage through to adulthood, and the head of the orphanage, Father Dinis (Adriano Luz), the narrator who travels through time like a supernatural character, with several lives and mysterious pasts.

In a labyrinth of flashbacks and chronological illusions, these two characters find themselves surrounded by dramas, betrayals and forbidden loves so typical of romantic characters, played here by a string of Portuguese actors well-known for their soap-opera roles, including Maria João Bastos, São José Correia, Albano Jerónimo and Ricardo Pereira. The cast also includes French actors Clotilde Hesme, Léa Seydoux, Melvil Poupaud and Malik Zidi.

Mysteries of Lisbon was presented in competition at the latest Toronto and San Sebastian festivals, with Ruiz winning Best Director at the latter. Clap Filmes is releasing it on the big screen today, while the TV series, which doesn’t yet have a release date, will be broadcast by state channel RTP.

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