Mal Viver is a narrative deeply rooted in family ties, unresolved traumas and the intense, and sometimes suffocating, interactions between women of different generations. The film delves into a troubled family atmosphere that unfolds in a hotel, a place that becomes a kind of emotional prison, where mother, daughter and grandmother live together and confront their sorrows and anxieties in an almost claustrophobic interaction. The hotel, the central stage of the film, is not just a setting, but a character that reverberates the psychological state of the women who work and live there. Conceived to be a place of rest and refuge for guests, the hotel, through Canijo's lens, assumes an ambiguous and contradictory role, reflecting both the nostalgic beauty of its architecture and the emotional distress of the protagonists. João Canijo chooses this space with a surgical eye, considering the need for a setting that enhances isolation and confrontation. Inspired by Strindberg's classics, such as
Creditors (2015), Canijo seeks to capture the psychological tension and latent conflict between his characters, something that Strindberg already explored when portraying human nature in its rawest and most conflicting state. In Mal Viver, the idea of conflict is not only familial, but existential. The protagonists' dramas and frustrations become mirrors of the actresses' personal experiences, reflecting the complex dynamics of power, dependence and unrequited love that exist between mothers and daughters.
