Pedro Costa

Ossos

Ossos

The first film in Pedro Costa’s transformative trilogy about Fontainhas, an impoverished quarter of Lisbon, Ossos is a tale of young lives torn apart by desperation. After a suicidal teenage girl gives birth, she misguidedly entrusts her baby’s safety to the troubled, deadbeat father, whose violent actions take the viewer on a tour of the foreboding, crumbling shantytown in which they live. With its reserved, shadowy cinematography by Emmanuel Machuel (who collaborated with Bresson on L’argent), Ossos is a haunting look at a devastated community.

Film Info

  • Portugal
  • 1997
  • 98 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.66:1
  • Portuguese
  • Spine #509

DIRECTOR-APPROVED DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • Film newly restored in high-definition, under the supervision of director Pedro Costa
  • New video conversation between Costa and filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
  • Video interviews with critic João Bérnard da Costa and cinematographer Emmanuel Machuel
  • New video essay by artist Jeff Wall
  • Gallery of photos by Mariana Viegas
  • New and improved English subtitle translation

Available In

Collector's Set

Letters from Fontainhas: Three Films by Pedro Costa

Letters from Fontainhas

DVD Box Set

4 Discs

$63.96

DIRECTOR-APPROVED DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • Film newly restored in high-definition, under the supervision of director Pedro Costa
  • New video conversation between Costa and filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
  • Video interviews with critic João Bérnard da Costa and cinematographer Emmanuel Machuel
  • New video essay by artist Jeff Wall
  • Gallery of photos by Mariana Viegas
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
Ossos
Cast
Vanda Duarte
Clotilde
Nuno Vaz
The father
Maria Lipkina
Tina
Isabel Ruth
Eduarda
Inês Medeiros
Whore
Miguel Sermão
Clotilde's husband
Berta Susana Teixeira
Nurse
Credits
Director
Pedro Costa
Writer
Pedro Costa
Producer
Paolo Branco
Cinematography
Emmanuel Machuel
Costume design
Isabel Favila
Production design
Zé Branco
Sound
Henri Maikoff
Sound
Gérard Rousseau
Editing
Jackie Bastide

Current

Pedro Costa’s Fontainhas Trilogy: Rooms for the Living and the Dead
Pedro Costa’s Fontainhas Trilogy: Rooms for the Living and the Dead
The work of Pedro Costa has progressed in slow, measured steps, but each step has been a giant leap. His slowness is both the condition and the consequence of ethical standards he shares with precious few directors of his generation. This is no lo…

By Cyril Neyrat