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Coup de Grâce

Gnadenschuss
Berlinale Shorts 2017
A man, Francisco, works in an open-pit mine. He goes to see his boss about taking the following day off. At first the boss doesn’t want to allow it as there is so much to do, but he finally concedes. The next day his daughter calls on him, a visit he no longer counted on. They spend the day with one another. The longer they are together, and the later the night gets, the more absurd the situations and moments they experience become.
In long shots, Lamas positions objects, people and feelings. She goes about it like a sculptor, creating sculptures out of everyday occurrences: the father stands in the open-pit mine, a truck drives towards him and tips sand over him. Another truck is parked in a vast empty space when hundreds of pigeons fly upwards into the sky on both sides. A powerful image that meanders from immobility to motion. And a metaphor for the relationship between father and daughter, who move among the sculptures, halt, move towards and away from each other. The exterior and interior become inverted.
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by Salomé Lamas
with Miguel Borges, Clara Jost, João Pedro Bénard, Gabriel Abrantes, Margarida Lucas, Álvaro Covelo, Pinto Workers Portugal 2017 Portuguese 26’ Colour

With

  • Miguel Borges (Francisco)
  • Clara Jost (Leonor)
  • João Pedro Bénard (Sr. Silva )
  • Gabriel Abrantes (neighbour)
  • Margarida Lucas (neighbour)
  • Álvaro Covelo
  • Pinto Workers

Crew

Director Salomé Lamas
Screenplay Salomé Lamas, Isabel Pettermann
Cinematography Rui Xavier
Sound Design Miguel Martins
Producers Luis Urbano, Sandro Aguilar

World Sales

Agência – Portuguese Short Film Agency

http://agencia.curtas.pt/ http://agencia.curtas.pt/

Produced by

O Som e a Fúria

http://www.osomeafuria.com http://www.osomeafuria.com

Salomé Lamas

Born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1987, she studied directing and editing at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema (ESTC) in Lisbon and at the FAMU film school in Prague. She also studied visual arts at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam and is currently taking a PhD in film studies at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. Her work has screened at many international film festivals and featured in museums around the world. Following Terra de ninguém (No Man's Land) and Eldorado XXI, Coup de Grâce marks her third film to screen at the Berlinale.

Filmography

2008 O palimpsesto da rapariga cisne ou choveu durante dois dias e a paisagem alterou-se (Swan Girls Palimpsest or It Rained During Two Days and the Landscape Has Changed); short film 2009 Jotta: A minha maladresse é uma forma de delicatesse (Jotta: My Maladresse Is a Way of Delicatesse); co-director: Francisco Moreira 2010 Rapariga Império (Imperial Girl); short film · Unnamed#I'm Sleepy; short film · VHS 2011 Golden Dawn; short film 2012 Encounters with Landscape; short film · A Comunidade; short film · Terra de ninguém (No Man's Land); Berlinale Forum 2013 Theatrum Orbis Terrarum; short film 2014 Le Boudin; short film 2015 A Torre; short film 2016 Eldorado XXI; Berlinale Forum 2017 Coup de Grâce

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2017