Independent Films,

nights | noites (extracts)
by claudia tomaz

NIGHTS focuses on the banality and brutality inherent in everyday life of a heroin addicted couple. In NIGHTS a simple story turns into a raw and chilling film, a fiction shot as a documentary.

The film portrays João and Teresa day-to-day existence, on the street, on public transport, in "Casal Ventoso" (a slum area of Lisbon), in hospitals and in the house where they squat. All the sets form a circle around the slum. It is a vicious circle: penniless characters with nothing left but their bodies and the daily tasks needed to keep them going. Within those passages through places dwell affection and friendship and the vague hope that tomorrow things will be better.

The film was awarded in Venice International Film Festival (2000) with The best film of the Critics' Week.

Shot in DVcam, final copy: 35mm - 73min