Bad Living

Bad Living

Mal Viver Director João Canijo

2 hr. 7 min. · Portugal, France, 2023 · Drama, Psychological · Portuguese · Subtitles: Lithuanian, English · N-16

About the film

Five women are running an old hotel, trying to save it from inexorable decay. A long-standing, perhaps irreparable, conflict weighs down on them: they are mothers who are unable to love their daughters, who in turn are unable to be mothers. When the young Salomé arrives at the hotel, old wounds are reopened.

João Canijo constructs a space that seems to absorb the characters’ states of mind. Like a Strindberg play or a Rivette film, dark images and twilight colours reflect the ritual nature of gestures and the complexity of relationships. What are we and what do we become when the past looms and the present seems to offer no way out? Canijo does not provide one answer but instead multiplies the points of view, creating a structure that takes into account the different interpretations of time and space, and the human beings who pass through them.

Details

Running time
2 hr. 7 min.
Country, year
Portugal, France, 2023
Genre
Drama, Psychological
Language
Portuguese
Subtitles
Lithuanian, English
Age rating
N-16

Credits

Director
João Canijo
Screenplay
João Canijo
Producers
Pedro Borges
Cinematography
Leonor Teles
Cast
Anabela Moreira, Rita Blanco, Madalena Almeida, Cleia Almeida, Vera Barreto, Nuno Lopes, Filipa Areosa, Leonor Silveira, Rafael Morais, Lia Carvalho, Beatriz Batarda, Carolina Amaral, Leonor Vasconcelos
More information
www.imdb.com

Festivals and awards

  • Berlyno tarptautinis kino festivalis Jury Prize
  • Istanbul International Film Festival
  • Chicago International Film Festival
  • IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival
João Canijo

Director

João Canijo

João Canijo began his career as an assistant director for Manoel de Oliveira, Wim Wenders, Alain Tanner and Werner Schroeter. His debut feature film opened the 1988 International Film Festival Rotterdam. Since then, he has made over ten feature films which have regularly screened in the official selections at Cannes, Venice and Toronto.

Where to watch