Trials, Exorcisms (Provas, Exorcismos). 2015. Portugal, France. Written and directed by Susana Nobre. With Óscar Santos, Bruno Pereira, Joana Ferreira, Joaquim Calçada, João Amaro, Susana Gonçalves, Henrique Bonacho. DCP. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 25 min.
48. 2009. Portugal. Directed by Susana de Sousa Dias. DCP. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 93 min.
Susana Nobre’s sensitive exploration of labor, unemployment, and personal dignity features real-life workers in a reenactment of their protest of a factory’s closure. Premiered during the Directors Fortnight at the Cannes film festival, Trials, Exorcisms is a powerful example of Portuguese cinema’s formal brilliance and its taste for honest, delicate reflections on life’s intimate struggles. In 48, Susana de Sousa Dias offers a remarkable essay on the links between film, photography, archives, and the passage of time. Photos of António de Oliveira Salazar’s political prisoners, taken by the regime’s police force, and an oral history of decades of torture and incarceration shed light on a nation’s traumatic—and forgotten—historical memory.