Montanha

David really doesn’t want to know anything about the fact that his grandpa is severely ill. He waits for the moment when grandpa is discharged from hospital so that he can get on with making dinner as usual. That is now done by his mother, who has arrived from London just for a while. She is not able to take care of more than the very simplest basic needs, too bound up with the her father’s illness and fuss with an ex. David fills his days hanging around in the empty flat or outside on the street; he hasn’t been seen at school for a while. He is silently hoping for help from Paulinha, the girl next door.
Montanha is the long-awaited feature debut by João Salaviza, who had already won a Golden Palm and a Golden Bear with his short films. Symbolic for the new, uncertain phase approaching in David’s life, the film is largely set in semi-darkness, with which cameraman Vasco Viana achieves a dramatic clair-obscur.

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