“There are quite a few bombshells” said an excited General Delegate Edouard Waintrop, when he announced the selection for the 45th Directors’ Fortnight, last year, ahead of the the 66th Cannes Film Festival.

The selection included 7 first feature films and 3 second features out of the 21 titles on the list.

Among them was Basil da Cunha’s feature film debut, Até ver a luz (or After Hours), a drama/thriller.

Here’s how it’s described:

Straight out of jail, Sombra returns to his life as a drug dealer in the Creole slum of Lisbon. In between the money he has lent and can’t get back, the money he owes, a fanciful iguana, an invasive little girl and a ringleader who begins to mistrust him, he starts to think that he might have been better off in the clink…

Pedro Ferreira stars as Sombra; he’s joined by Joao Veiga, Nelson da Cruz Duarte Rodrigues, and Paulo Ribeiro in the film’s starring cast.

Basil da Cunha is a 28-year-old Swiss filmmaker of Portuguese descent. In 2011 and 2012, his short films Nuvem and Os vivos também choram were selected to screen at the Director’s Fortnight where the latter received a Special Mention from the Jury.

So the young filmmaker has a history with the festival, which speaks highly of his work. Although I can’t say that I’m at all familiar with his work, or what we can expect from Até ver a luz, his feature film debut. But I’m certainly curious, and will check it out if/when it comes to my neck of the woods, to determine if it’s one of the few *bombshells* Waintrop had in mind when he made the above comment.

The last film I watched that was set in a Creole slum in Lisbon was a 1997 minimalist drama titled Ossos by Pedro Costa – more of a gritty, slow-moving film that might be the opposite of Cunha’s Até ver a luz in terms of pacing – based on the trailer for I dug up, embedded below.

It’s not subtitled in English; but I think the images tell you plenty.

Até ver a luz is set for release in France next month. No USA distributor yet.

Après la nuit

Basil da Cunha

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