Noite Escura

Portuguese cinema is, apparently, uninspiring and this film from Portugal is no exception. While it does not offer much optimism, there are some fine performances here. A couple of the lead actresses are supposedly two of the best in that country. Here they are part of a family who runs a brothel. Dad gets in debt and needs to sell his 15 year old daughter to the Russians who will in turn enslave her in another brothel in Spain. Her older sister fears she will end up dead and tries to save her. Mom doesn't do much to stop this from happening. She finally tries but never really puts up much of a fight. Too busy cheating on her husband who is meanwhile getting oral sex from his oldest daughter. Uhhhh... yeah, that's not good. Very, very bad. Really a total downer of a film, very dark and bleak and hopeless for the most part. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the Canne Film Festival and was Portugal's entry that year for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. But being so depressing helped hurt it in my view. Disturbing and depressing yet still a curiosity to be sure... but with this one I'm coming in under IMDb.

5.4 / 10 stars

--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener

I Saw this film at the 2006 Palm Springs International Film Festival since it was Portugal's official entry to the Academy Awards. This movie is so far-fetched I'm surprised Steven Seagal wasn't in it. I just found all the events that happened to have happened in the course of one night to have been implausible. How people in the film react to things or don't react is also a little beyond belief. Since the story takes place over the course of an evening the entire film is dark and that gets a little tiresome. Beatriz Bartada is good but her character is supposed to be too homely and unappealing to be a a working girl at the club and I found that a little unbelievable since she looks better than most of girls in the movie. This film just had too much of a dark claustrophobic feel to it. I would only give this a Fair rating and give it a 5.5 out of a possible 10 and would not recommend it.

This movie tells the story of a man who has got to sell her own daughter to the Russian Mafia to avoid being killed by them for debts. He tells her they are artistic impresarios in search of talents to make future great stars when in fact they are going to put her in a bar brothel in Russia or elsewhere and turn her into a prostitute. The man is the husband of the bar hostess whose part is made by the great actress Rita Blanco. Life in the bar is shown in all its crudity and insensitiveness with the girls serving her clients in drinking and sex. The Russian Mafia is behind the scene and in fact commands the business even if they only appear when it's necessary to kill someone who has broken the rules including any of the girls serving there. They do it with sheer brutality. This is an universe where the distinction between good and evil is not known. Only money, sex and power command here. Nevertheless there is some place for good human feelings here and there. There is the older sister (part very well done by Beatriz Batarda who is often considered the best Portuguese actress now) who doesn't want to let her younger sister go with the Russians because she knows too well what will be her destiny. Even the bar hostess who is her mother shows certain reluctance in it but she is too much involved in the business to make a full opposition. The movie is made with much realism and truth but it's a bit too schematic in the depiction of certain characters. The movements of camera are very often too quick and confused and the cut abuses of close-ups of faces to the detriment of more general plans that would be needed. But the movie shows enough well the hell of life in those brothel bars.

This movie was a bit of a letdown for me, i started watching it with reasonably high expectations and although it wasn't a complete waste of time, it's far from being anything special. The movie takes place over the course of one night in a brothel in the Portuguese country side, the father of the family that owns it was involved in a business with the Russian mafia, something went wrong, and now to compensate the Russians he has to give his younger daughter away to work as a prostitute in Spain. The film looks good, nice photography and camera-work with some clever shots, that keep the film from getting too slow paced. The overall mood is well accomplished, with some nice acting from the girls playing the prostitutes, a combination of Brazilian and middle eastern women that work under conditions very similar to slavery. There are a few great performances, especially from Fernando Luís as the father who plays a weak and cold-hearted man, and Beatriz Batarda who plays the older daughter the only sympathetic character in the movie, Beatriz is one of the most talented actresses in Portuguese cinema right now, and her performance on this is really special. I recommend you see Beatriz in the far superior film "Alice" that won the Regards Jeunes award at this year's Cannes Movie Festival. So whats exactly is wrong with this film? Well the plot is week and not that credible, and the dialog is very cheesy throughout, which makes it really hard for the viewer to sympathize with the characters. Also, the end seems very abrupt, and we are left without a real sense of closing. This could have been great, but ended up as just another failed attempt, in the already stale world of Portuguese cinema.

Excellent cinematography and above average performances, make this the one of the darkest, 'in your face' dramas ever produced in Portugal.

Beatriz Batarda is indeed one of the best Portuguese actresses of our time, and Fernando Luís surprises with a performance well beyond anything he's done in television.

Mr. Canijo continues to innovate with his camera work and overlapped dialogs. He's one of the few Portuguese directors who's not afraid to experiment concepts and techniques that haven't been usually used in the making of Portuguese Cinema.

9 out of 10.

Highly recommended.