Far (Longe). 2016. Portugal. Directed by José Oliveira. With José Lopes. DCP. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 36 min.
The Movement of Things (O Movimento das Coisas). 1985. Portugal. Directed by Manuela Serra. With the people of Lanheses. 4K digital restoration by Cinemateca Portuguesa; courtesy Cinemateca Portuguesa. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 86 min.
Over six years, Manuela Serra’s camera patiently captured the harmonious energy of a family’s simple, rural life and nature’s movement around them, showing communal traditions fading in the face of a modernizing society, and a landscape on the verge of going through a brutal transformation. An ethnographic documentary with touches of Brigadoon, The Movement of Things is Serra’s only directorial effort—a unique, precious look at life, death, the deceitful promises of progress, and the very essence of time. In Far, a man (José Lopes) walks through the abandoned landscape surrounding Lisbon’s expanding urban areas like a searcher traveling through his past, finding friends and the embrace of a daughter along time’s pathways.