Get a Life

To begin this retrospective, we present a unique film in which the nocturnal and claustrophobic elements characteristic of João Canijo’s narratives begin to emerge, set against the backdrop of Portuguese emigration to France. Cidália lives with her family on the outskirts of Paris and devotes her life to work in order to save money. When her eldest son is killed by the police, she is forced to abandon the discretion that has always characterised her existence. Determined to uncover the truth, she challenges the authorities' explanations and defies the passivity of the Portuguese emigrant community in France—a community that continues to live, even more intensely than before, according to the traditions of Portuguese culture.