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Viver Mal

Living Bad
Encounters 2023
© Midas Filmes
Five women are running an old hotel and trying to save it from inexorable decay. Guests arrive over the course of a weekend: a couple bears the wounds of a long-term misunderstanding; a domineering mother interferes in her daughter’s relationship; two girls try to save their own love story in the face of opposition from a possessive mother. Viver Mal is the reverse shot of Mal Viver, which is screening in the Competition: here, João Canijo reveals everything that was floating in the depth of field in this film’s mirror image. Reality becomes the intertwining and multiplication of different points of view; the intersection between what can be seen and what the eye misses. Like a play of light reflections, Viver Mal is Mal Viver in another dimension. The image is distorted, but at the same time seeks a new definition by relaunching itself into infinity.
by João Canijo
with Nuno Lopes, Filipa Areosa, Leonor Silveira, Rafael Morais, Lia Carvalho, Beatriz Batarda, Carolina Amaral, Leonor Vasconcelos Portugal / France 2023 Portuguese 125’ Colour

With

  • Nuno Lopes (Jaime)
  • Filipa Areosa (Camila)
  • Leonor Silveira (Elisa)
  • Rafael Morais (Alexandre)
  • Lia Carvalho (Graça)
  • Beatriz Batarda (Judite)
  • Carolina Amaral (Alice)
  • Leonor Vasconcelos (Júlia)

Crew

Director João Canijo
Screenplay João Canijo
Cinematography Leonor Teles
Editing João Braz
Sound Design Elsa Ferreira
Sound Tiago Raposinho
Production Design Nádia Henriques
Costumes Silvia Siopa
Assistant Director Inês Garcia Marques
Production Manager Joana Carneiro Reis
Producer Pedro Borges
Co-Producer François D'Artemare
Co-Production Les Films de l'Après-Midi Paris

World sales

Portugal Film – Portuguese Film Agency

http://portugalfilm.org http://portugalfilm.org

Produced by

Midas Filmes

Photos

João Canijo

© Joana Linda

He began his career as an assistant director for Manoel de Oliveira, Wim Wenders, Alain Tanner and Werner Schroeter. His debut feature film Três menos eu opened the 1988 International Film Festival Rotterdam. Since then, he has made over ten feature films which have regularly screened in the official selections at Cannes, Venice and Toronto. Sangue do meu sangue won awards including the FIPRESCI prize at San Sebastián and the Grand Jury Prize at the Miami Film Festival. His work has been honoured with retrospectives in cities including Busan, La Rochelle and Buenos Aires.

Filmography

1985 Três menos eu (Three Less Me) 1989 Filha da mãe (Lovely Child) 1997 Sapatos pretos (Black Shoes) 2000 Ganhar a vida (Get A Life) 2003 Noite escura (In the Darkness of the Night) 2007 Mal nascida (Misbegotten) 2010 Fantasia lusitana (Lusitania Illusion); documentary 2011 Trabalho de actriz, trabalho de actor (Actor’s Work); documentary · Sangue do meu sangue (Blood of My Blood) 2012 Raúl Brandão era um grande escritor... (Raul Brandão was a great writer...); short documentary 2013 É o amor (That’s Love) 2015 Portugal, um dia de cada vez (Portugal: One Day at a Time); documentary 2017 Fátima · Diáro das Beiras (Diary of Beiras); documentary 2023 Mal Viver (Bad Living) · Viver Mal (Living Bad)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023