In Vanda’s Room (No Quarto da Vanda). 2000. Portugal. Directed by Pedro Costa. With Vanda Duarte, Lena Duarte, Zita Duarte. 4K restoration supervised by Pedro Costa. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 171 min.
After shooting in Cape Verde and returning to Portugal with letters from people to their immigrant children, Pedro Costa found himself in the Fontainhas slums on the outskirts of Lisbon, where he made his film Ossos with a traditional crew. Costa then returned to the neighborhood with a digital camera and a minimal set-up to focus on the daily life of one of its inhabitants: Vanda Duarte. Shot amid public authorities’ efforts to demolish the neighborhood, In Vanda’s Room captures a community in which families, junkies, and immigrants suffering from the country’s 1990s heroin epidemic come together in a remarkable work based on love, dignity, and self-destruction. In the words of Shigehiko Hasumi, “The 21st century begins for cinema with Pedro Costa’s In Vanda’s Room.”