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Cartas da + Guerra + + (Letters + from War) BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL 2016

Cartas da Guerra (Letters from War) Certificate 15TH FEBRUARY 2016

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OLIVER JOHNSTON

In theory, anyone can be

hypnotised.

entirely whether

depends the

It on

subject

allows it to happen.

The

lyrical

language

and glamourous blackand-white photography

of

director

Ferreira’s

Cartas

Ivo

M.

magnificent

da

(Letters

Guerra

from

War)

evoke a sensation of being hypnotised, and it’s

best

to

simply

succumb. Opening in 1971,

young

doctor

António (Miguel Nunes) has been sent to the Portuguese War

in

Colonial

Angola.

He

writes a never-ending succession of letters home to his pregnant wife,

and

it’s

these

letters that narrate and guide

the

story

as

they’re read out in her lilting voiceover.

The letters manage to be both poetic and occasionally depending

on

while it’s not a film António’s

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prosaic,

António’s mood, and without

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dialogue, actual

spoken words are very

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far and few between.

He’s not introverted or stilted by any stretch, but it’s in his letters where his sharp mind and his tenderness are overt. Nunes does an excellent job given the

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fact that he is rarely able to communicate with dialogue.

Ferreira initially shoots his handsome young military

men

like

matinee idols, with the crispness of the black and white making their gradual decay all the more obvious. While there’s no colour to be seen, it feels as though the palate changes as the war drags on, and as

António’s

sympathies

swing

slowly towards the left.

While it was a place of wartime horrors in the 1960s and 70s, Angola (where the film was shot)

still

looks

beautiful, albeit in a rather stark manner.

A black-and-white film where

any

defined

clearly

thought

is

communicated by an almost unseen female reader could easily be consigned

to

the

always-vague label of arthouse cinema. But once the method of delivery the

is

accepted,

movie

elegantly

immerses its audience

in a nuanced world that depicts a largely forgotten war. Cartas

da Guerra is a rich and haunting triumph.

Verdict:

Oliver Johnston Cartas

da

(Letters

Guerra

from

War)

does not have a UK release date yet.

Read

more

of

our

reviews and interviews from the festival here.

For further information about the Berlin Film Festival 2016 visit here.

Watch the trailer for Cartas da Guerra here:

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