Centro histórico

The Portuguese city of Guimarães was European Cultural Capital for 2012. To celebrate that, four directors – two local maestros, a neighbour (Basque) and an outsider (Finnish) – were asked to make an omnibus film on ‘the stories the city has to tell’. They give an idiosyncratic, varied picture in substance, style and tone.
Aki Kaurismäki starts off with a bittersweet comedy without dialogue about a lonely barman, who sees a lot without really experiencing anything. Pedro Costa takes a reflective dive into the colonial past using a lift ride with a Cape Verdean migrant and a Portuguese soldier. In the only documentary part, the Basque Victor Erice pays homage to Guimarães’ 150-year-old textile industry, now almost entirely outsourced to Asia. The final word is for the world’s oldest active filmmaker, Manoel de Oliveira, with a spicy satire on wildly photographing tourists in Guimarães’ historic centre.

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