Ana preceded by Painéis do Porto

Director: António Reis, Margarida Cordeiro

1985 / 130min / DCP

“At the center of Ana—Reis and Cordeiro’s sublime second feature—is Ana, an elderly matriarch portrayed by Cordeiro’s own mother. She cares for her family in the far-off mountains of Trás-os-Montes. As her grandchildren grow to perceive the outer world, their inner life evolves; meanwhile, Ana grows sick and her death looms. A series of nonlinear scenes resembling reminiscences and rituals, with dialogue from poems by Rilke, Ana manifests a link from individual experience to the collective toils of people throughout the ages, and from the collective to the earth, all wrapped up in the cycles of life, death, and renewal. Keyed to the resonances of footsteps and whispers, the film sustains the atmosphere of a chamber piece, even as it opens to vast landscapes, and to eternity. Screens with Painéis do Porto, Reis’s first film, a short poetic reportage on workers’ movements through the city of Porto.” —Series curators Edward McCarry and Graham Carter (The Theater of the Matters)

Digitization by Cinemateca Portuguesa - Museu do Cinema

Introduction by The Theater of the Matters guest curators, Graham Carter and Edward McCarry on Saturday, February 22nd