About the Director

João Canijo started his career as an assistant director to Manoel de Oliveira, Wim Wenders, Alain Tanner and Werner Schroeter. His feature debut, Três menos eu, opened the Rotterdam Film Festival in 1988. Since then, he has made over ten feature films that have been regularly presented in the Cannes, Venice and Toronto competitions. Sangue do meu sangue received the Fipresci Award in San Sebastián and the Grand Jury Prize at the Miami Film Festival, among others. João Canijo has been honored with numerous retrospectives in Busan, La Rochelle and Buenos Aires, among others. (Berlinale)

The Director About the Film

“The location of the film is fundamental in bringing the project’s intentions to fruition, as it could only happen somewhere from which no escape was possible. A place where the actresses are forced to be alone and with each other, even if they wish to run away. A place that the characters’ life depends on. The choice was a remote hotel by the Portuguese shore, which functions like a prison, since the characters can’t leave.

The actresses don’t transform, they adapt to the situation and the circumstances of the characters, without ceasing to be the same people. The screenplay was created over two years of discussions and rehearsals with the actresses, in order to get the truth from each of them.”