Phantom

O Fantasma

64th TIFF: Greek Premiere
Sérgio is a young gay man working nights as a dustman in a large city. He lives with his dog and is a solitary soul, without a lover or family or friends. He seems, however, to nurture endlessly this colossal desire – one set, inescapably, to upend his wilful solitude. Or perhaps not? Lying somewhere between Pier-Paolo Pasolini (minus the intense political/Marxist dimension), Pedro Almodóvar (minus the intense visual styling), Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and the liminal literature of Jean Genet, this film by João Pedro Rodrigues takes a plunge into the abyss of urban loneliness, to discover there people who are haunted by the need for communication, irreparably traumatized by their failure to connect with others, to escape the prison of their own selves: that place where a descent into the bestial seems the only possible way of facing down the “phantoms” of the flesh.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: João Pedro Rodrigues
Script: João Pedro Rodrigues, José Neves, Paulo Rebelo, Alexandre Melo
Cinematography: Rui Poças
Editing: Paulo Rebelo, João Pedro Rodrigues
Sound: Mafalda Roma
Actors: Ricardo Meneses, Beatriz Torcato, André Barbosa, Eurico Vieira
Production: Rosa Filmes
Producers: Sandra Figueiredo
Costumes: João Rui Guerra da Mata
Sets: João Rui Guerra da Mata
Make Up: Rita Castro
Format: 35mm
Color: Color
Production Country: Portugal
Production Year: 2000
Duration: 87'
Contact: Rosa Filmes
Awards/Distinctions: Best Foreign Film – Belfort FF-Entrevues 2000, Best Film – NewFest: New York’s LGBT Film Festival 2001

João Pedro Rodrigues

João Pedro Rodrigues is an internationally renowned Portuguese filmmaker. When he was eight years old, his father gave him a pair of binoculars and he decided to become an ornithologist. He always travels with his binoculars, to foray into nature and watch birds. His work explores gender and human desire in all its guises – and disguises – reflecting the multifarious history of film, from classical genre to documentary and experimental film. His films premiered and won prizes at the world’s foremost film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Toronto, and Berlin. In 2016, the Pompidou Centre in Paris honored Rodrigues and his partner, João Rui Guerra da Mata, with a complete retrospective and installation exhibition.

Filmography

1988 O Pastor (short)
1997 Happy Birthday! (short)
1998 A Trip to the Expo (doc)
2000 Phantom
2005 Two Drifters
2007 China China (short)
2009 To Die Like a Man
2012 The Last Time I Saw Macao
2016 The Ornithologist
2022 Will-o'-the-Wisp