Like people, places have things that change and things that remain the same. Most of us keep our thoughts about our hometowns to wistful conversations and the recesses of our memory, but Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho instead captures Recife in Pictures of Ghosts. It’s a meandering tour, shifting from topic to topic, place to place with not that much structure, but through the journey, Kleber shares so much of himself (his home, his film sets, the theaters he formed his taste in), and Brazilian society, combining archived clips, personal memories, and even a ghostly mystery into one interesting map of Recife.
"Brazil’s Kleber Mendonça Filho returns with this extremely charming personal survey of the grand picture palaces of Recife."
— David Jenkins
"The buildings may one day rot, but everyone in Recife can now point to this urgent, moving piece of preservation and find in it an eternal record of its film history."
— Guilherme Jacobs
Downtown Recife’s classic movie palaces from the 20th century are mostly gone. That city area is now an archaeological site of sorts that reveals aspects of life in society which have been lost. And that’s just part of the story.
After half a century, Recife, the vibrant coastal capital of the state of Pernambuco, has closed their classic movie theaters, the same cinemas that Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho grew up in.
Honestly, it’s kinda funny how Recife prides itself as the third best festival city of the world. Not the first, nor the second, but the third.
Title actually checks out.
Cannes
1 nomination
