Ossos

Ossos (English: "Bones") is a 1997 Portuguese film directed by Pedro Costa.

The film was shot in the Fontainhas district of Lisbon (also known as "Estrela d'Africa"), where disadvantaged dwellers and immigrants from former Portuguese colonies in Africa live desperate lives.

This drama film with some documentary elements made Pedro Costa acclaimed internationally. It was nominated for Golden Lion and won the best cinematography (Golden Osella) at the Venice International Film Festival in 1997.

He further dealt with the now-defunct shanty district in his next two films, In Vanda's Room (2000) and Colossal Youth (2006).

Plot
The film focuses on the interactions among four characters: Clotilde and Tina are close friends and neighbors living in the depressed Fontainhas district. Clotilde is very protective of the suicidal Tina, who has a newborn baby with an unnamed deadbeat father. Eduarda is a nurse living in a better working-class area. She meets the father and the baby by chance, and gets to know Clotilde and Tina as a result. Their ambiguous relationship keeps this downbeat story moving around the shanty town.

The director's ascetic style and this district's faded cityscape further stress the depressing tone of the film. Through the lenses of Pedro Costa and Emmanuel Machuel, Ossos records a tale of young lives torn apart at a devastated community.

Cast

 * Vanda Duarte as Clotilde
 * Nuno Vaz as The father
 * Maria Lipkina as Tina
 * Isabel Ruth as Eduarda
 * Inês Medeiros as Whore
 * Miguel Sermão as Clotilde's husband
 * Berta Susana Teixeira as Nurse

Credits

 * Director: Pedro Costa
 * Writer: Pedro Costa
 * Producer: Paolo Branco
 * Cinematography: Emmanuel Machuel
 * Costume design: Isabel Favila
 * Production design: Zé Branco
 * Sound: Henri Maikoff
 * Sound: Gérard Rousseau
 * Editing: Jackie Bastide

Home video
This film, together with In Vanda's Room (2000) and Colossal Youth (2006), is released by the Criterion Collection in a box set Letters from Fontainhas: Three Films by Pedro Costa.