PATRICK | Press Kit [EN]

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ducted y ab mário, an8-y 8-year-old boy abducted ear-old bo rio, an má 99, 19 ring of e sp th ng ri in central portugal during the spring of 1999, du al ug rt po l ra nt ce in jail. risianjail. ter in resurfaces 12ye years later in a a pa parisian ars la surfaces 12 re secret rrible secret des aa te hi e this period of disappearance hides terrible nc ra ea pp sa di of od ri pe this character. sterious character. is my th and all the complexities of this mysterious es ti xi le mp co he l t al d an

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— Patrick, 20-years-old, lives in Paris with his older boyfriend. He runs a teenage pornography website, which results in a prison sentence following a raid at a party.

Mário, 8-years-old, was kidnapped 12 years ago in Portugal. Patrick and Mário are the same person with two conflicting identities: a life in Paris filled with parties, drugs, and promiscuity and a new rural life in Portugal, where he feels obliged to reconnect with a broken family.

s ' r o t d i r e c r di nn o t e — The disappearance or abduction of chil- Mario, the 8-year-old kidnapped child dren is usually addressed through the was given a new identity by his abductor. perspective of the parent’s pain and suf- Now he’s Patrick. By the time he’s 18, he fering. On the other hand, we rarely have leaves Mark’s house – his kidnapper – enough information to look at the other and starts a new life as a video producer side of the tragedy – what happens to the for a pornographic website with underchild after the kidnapping and how will age girls. But two years later, he continhis life be during and after this experi- ues to be Patrick. Why? Was it a choice?

Was it conscious? Or was it something ence? much deeper than a simple identity It seems to me that the uniqueness of this switch to protect the raptor? What is the approach lies in the fact of dealing with the victim’s responsibility in the managechildren kidnapping, as current as univer- ment of those identities? sal, from the point of view of an adult person who has been a victim of this crime and Mario is the result of 8 years of family life. who, somehow, was able to rebuild his life Patrick is the result of 10 years of captivby cutting his own past. The idea of getting ity. Is there an overlap, or interconnecover a traumatic experience and building tion of these two identities? By agreeing an independent life afterwards, even if it to live as Patrick, can the abducted vicmeans adopting a morally reprehensible tim/child mitigate the suffering caused by his traumatic experience? That is, behaviour.

perhaps, the best way out. It was the easiest way he found to get over the trauma, but there’s also a consuming guilt: could he have avoided his own abduction?

After all, he was not forced. He was seduced. He was deceived by an easy promise. But Patrick, or Mario, knows the fault is not only his. His mother wasn’t able to prepare him for a situation like this. And a mother who lets her child be kidnapped is an unfit mother.

There will be no forgiveness for her, nor for his father, despite his absence most of the time they lived as a family. And, in his mind, his mother didn’t search for him.

We will see how this child, now an adult, can return to his family, and how the family reacts to his return, after almost 12 years of absence. New ambiguities

will come, along with traumas, particularly the pleasure/horror of homecoming and relearning his mother tongue.

aunt thinks he always was, and he must please the audience that wants films to never ever go back to being the boy he solve themselves, without moral quesonce was for Mark, the friend, the father, tions. his one true love.

There is a sort of statelessness in his life.

The moral, apparently absent, will only He’s not a boy, but nor he’s an adult. He’s As for the question of moral or its appar- be a question after the film is over, when not Portuguese, nor he’s French. He’s ent lack of moral, one can say in a sim- each viewer realizes that he still has to not homossexual, nor he’s heterossex- plistic way that the great battle between solve this enigma without the help of the ual. Amid these ambiguities lies the true good and evil lies within the character: film. The battle between good and evil driving force of the film: someone who Mário vs Patrick. Taking the example has to stay with us. is in search of himself, while others are of Nietzsche, in his controversial Genetrying to find someone that he used to be, alogy of Morals: Mario is the noble, the There are dark places in our life and a boy in a photo. A coming-of-age movie, good, the spiritually privileged; while minds that never should be enlightened. one could say, where the growth of the Patrick is the bad, the vulgar, the low; Places that we should avoid at all costs. character only may happen with the but that doesn’t mean that, in the end, But to me, this is one of cinema’s duties: destruction of everyone else’s expecta- when he says his name is Patrick, he is spread light and shadow on everything tions of him. In order for him to find out stating he is actually the bad, nor does it else. who he truly is, he must not be the kid confirm that, taking in consideration all his mother wants him to be; he must not he has done, he behaved badly. If he said become the love his cousin wants him to that his name was Mario, it would be become; he must not be the monster the nothing more than a trick, destined to

interview with the director

p aatt r i c k , g o n Ç a l o w a d d i n g t onn''ss ''ssttuubbbboorrnn iiddeeaa'' In the beginning there was film. Before ever considering becoming an actor, Gonçalo Waddington (Lisbon, 1977) imagined himself making movies. So, when he finished high school, he was determined to go to the Lisbon Theatre and Film School to study Film. But the plan was postponed when he found out, through a friend’s brother, that he could study Directing at the Escola Profissional de Teatro de Cascais (Cascais Theatre School). That’s where he enrolled at sixteen, marking the beginning of a career which, over the course of more than two decades, has been filled with numerous jobs as an actor (in theatre, film and television), stage director and playwright. Throughout the years, film, or

the intention of becoming a filmmaker, was never forsaken. “I kept thinking about film the whole time, I kept thinking of stories for films.” One of those stories came about during a return trip from Spain, when his uncle was driving the car. “He pointed at one of those roadside motels and told me that some prostitutes had been abducted and kept there. It all came to light when the place was raided by the police, but one of them was able to escape, through the narrow crack of a window on the ground floor. I remember thinking about the image of that woman escaping through the window, in a place surrounded by nothing but wilderness, in the summer.”

He stored that “vision” away, as one of the stories he would one day like to film. Until, in March 1998, Waddington learned of the disappearance of Rui Pedro, an eleven-year-old boy, in Lousada, that very month. He realized that there could be a connection between his “vision” of the prostitute escaping and the kidnapping of this child, but he wasn’t quite sure what it was, so he allowed himself time so that his “stubborn idea”, which is how he describes the thoughts he keeps coming back to, could take shape. He was in no rush.

Sometimes an image, a sentence or a in the Polícia Judiciária (Portuguese book can unlock something we’ve been Criminal Police) and psychologists. He seeking for a long time. And that’s what wasn’t interested in addressing any parhappened to Waddington. In 2008/2009, ticular cases, but rather in gathering his reading of Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy information, both general and technical, helped define what he wanted to do in a so as order to avoid imprecisions. Later feature film: “When I finished reading that year, having finished his script, it, I thought, ‘That’s it, I know the story I he applied for subsidies from the ica want to tell’”. And the story he wanted to (Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual/ tell was based on a study, of sorts, of the Portuguese Cinema and Audiovisual multiple dimensions of identity, mining Institute).

Greek tragedy for the masks, the dissimulation, the pretending. Patrick, Gonçalo In 2014, four years after finishing the Waddington’s first feature film, is this first draft of the screenplay, and several too, and much more. Because it also tack- rewrites later, Waddington presented les the abduction and sex trafficking of it to Luís Urbano, with production comchildren, pedophilia, family separation, pany O Som e a Fúria. Urbano accepted and the tremendously nefarious conse- the project, but both their schedules quences survivors are left to deal with. stopped them from starting to work on He had one firm belief at the time, which it right away. Which would later prove he held on to: “It was never my intention to be beneficial, as it allowed Waddingto tell the story of Rui Pedro.” ton to attend the Faliro House/Sundance Institute Mediterranean ScreenIn 2010, Waddington started writing the writers Workshop, a meeting between screenplay, along with his screenwriter young and veteran filmmakers which and filmmaker friend João Leitão. “The takes place annually at Costa Navarino, story was mine, but I needed to work in Greece. Over the last week of July with somebody who could help me with 2016, he attended workshops in film the language of the script.” Sometime writing, film shooting techniques, etc., before that, he had talked to inspectors with Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel

Tsangari as his mentor, who discussed his screenplay in detail with him. “She helped me with a lot of things, especially with the character of the aunt, by showing me that her presence upstaged the mother’s.” Waddington also had several meetings with Indian filmmaker Ritesh Batra. He wrote down everything he heard. And, upon returning to Lisbon, he rewrote the script a fourth time – a version which he would still refine further, before and during shooting. Later in 2016 he attended the Berlinale Co-Production Market, an event that runs parallel to the Berlin International Film Festival and where international producers, distributors and investors gather. It was there that Waddington’s project, whose production was assured by O Som e a Fúria, caught the attention of German production company Augenschein Filmproduktion, which became attached to the film as co-producer.

Aiming to ensure further financing from Germany, the producers decided to shoot the interiors of Paris in the city of Cologne. Additionally, zdf/ arte and French producer Sébastien Haguenauer, of 10:15 Productions

became associated producers on Patrick, which also received support from rtp (Portuguese Radio and Television).

himself lived for a while, with his grand- “How much should I expose?”, Waddingmother. The same grandmother who ton wondered during shooting. This said that the voice of the animals was effort toward restraint is palpable in the voice of God and who one day, after this, his first feature film; the same way one of her daughters gave her a parrot, Patrick’s inner struggle is restrained. knelt before the bird when it started to Almost to the end. speak. Although the house where part of the story is set is not the director’s fam- maria lourenço ily’s house, some places from his childhood are featured in the film.

Late in 2017, Gonçalo Waddington’s project was beginning to come to life, and he was finally about to do something he had been looking forward to since his teenage years. In December, the casting process began in Lisbon and Paris, mostly in search of a young actor, with or without previous experience, who spoke Shooting started in October 2018 and both Portuguese and French. Hugo Fer- went on for nine weeks, in Paris, Cologne nandes, who plays the main character, and Sertã, as well as a few roads in Spain didn’t send over the usual casting video and Belgium. Sertã is Patrick’s place of and just showed up, stating his father birth, and where his family lives, but it is was born in Torre de Moncorvo and his also a strange, unfamiliar place, where mother was Parisian. He performed a he feels like an outsider before his own few scenes and proceeded to sweep Wad- kin and the town itself. It is also the place dington off his feet. A few more casting where Waddington’s idea of Patrick as a sessions were held after that, but Hugo film about identity stands out the most.

Fernandes had already been chosen as “If someone tells you that you’re not this the lead in a cast of Portuguese, German person after all, that you’re that person, and French actors. that creates a spark. He knows who he is, but he has lived eight years under an As he usually does when directing for identity, and ten more years in a kind the stage, Waddington held an artistic of ‘Neverland’, not far from his captor, residency before shooting the film, gath- who was a father and a protector; and ering his main core of actors in Sertã, a then, all of a sudden, he is returned to town in the interior of Portugal, where he his family.”

DIRECTOR’S B I O G R A P H Y :: gonçalo waddington was born in Lisbon, 1975.

Waddington is an actor, stage director, director, playwright, screenwriter and producer. He directed two shorts: Immaculate, which he also wrote and produced, premiered at the IndieLisboa International Film Festival in 2013; Nameless, co-written with Marco Martins, premiered at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, which won a Special Mention at the IndieLisboa International Film Festival in 2010. Waddington is a very well-known stage and film actor, in Portugal. He acted in films by Miguel Gomes, Marco Martins, Margarida Cardoso, João Canijo, Ivo M. Ferreira, among others. In parallel, Waddington has been writing and directing theatre plays. Patrick is his first feature film as a director. filmography: 2019: Patrick 2013: Immaculate (Imaculado) (Short) 2010: Nameless (Nenhum Nome) (Short)

main cast biography

hhuuggoo ffeerrnnaannddeess

— hugo fernandes was born in 2000 in Paris. His first film, in which he played one of the main roles alongside BenoÎt Magimel, was Les vents contraires by Jalil Lespert (2011). He later collaborated on various short films and has been appearing in a number of second roles in cinema. In 2017 he was part of the cast of two series, Ad Vitam and Sam, and participated, as male lead actor, in the feature film Sauvages by Dennis Berry.

Patrick is his first role as protagonist.

main cast biography

aa ll bb aa ba pt i sta

— alba baptista was born in 1997 in Lisbon.

After a course at act – an acting school in Lisbon, she had her first role in 2014 in the short film Miami by Simão Cayatte.

In the same year, she made her first television appearance in the soap opera Jardins Proibidos (tvi). Since then she has accumulated roles in feature films, working with directors like Leonor Noivo and Edgar Pêra, and on tv, with several roles in series (Filha da Lei, País Irmão - rtp) and soap operas (A Impostora, Jogo Duplo – tvi).

main cast biography

tteerreessaa s o br a l

— teresa sobral was born in 1965 in Lisbon. She studied philosophy and music. She made her debut in 1986 with stage director João Lourenço, at the D. Maria II National Theatre, with Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children, and has worked regularly in theatre since then, collaborating with dozens of directors and creators as an actress and/or co-creator. Besides being an actress, she is also a stage director. She does animation dubbing and has participated in countless television series. She is a theatre acting teacher, and in 2016 she founded the inclusive theatre group Teatro Sobre Rodas (Theatre on Wheels), which she currently directs for the non-profit organization Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa.

main cast biography

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— carla maciel was born in 1974 in Oporto. She made her debut in theatre in 1992. She has worked with directors Miguel Seabra, Gonçalo Amorim, Sofia Dias & Vitor Roríz, Marco Martins, Beatriz Batarda, Tiago Rodrigues, Sara Carinhas and Gonçalo Waddington.

Since 2002, she has taken part in soap operas and series for tv. She participated in the French series Maison Close. In Spain, she joined the cast of the series Pepe Carvalho. In cinema, she worked with directors such as Tiago Guedes, Miguel Gomes, Marco Martins, António Pedro Vasconcelos, Carlos Conceição and Gabriel Abrantes.

mm a i n c a s t — hugo fernandes: Patrick/Mário teresa sobral: Laura carla maciel: Helena alba baptista: Marta miguel herz-kestranek: Mark

M aA iI nN cC rR eE w W: m

— director and scriptwriter Gonçalo Waddington cinematography Vasco Viana sound Olivier Blanc assistant director Emídio Miguel art direction Nadia Henriques costume Peri De Bragança hair & make-up Rita De Castro editor Pedro Filipe Marques original music Bruno Pernadas sound editor and mix António Porém Pires color grading Paulo Américo casting Karen Hottois A.R.D.A., Anja Dihrberg, Raquel Da Silva production manager Joaquim Carvalho associate producer zdf/Arte Alexander Bohr associate producer Sébastien Haguenauer co-producers Jonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo Producer Luís Urbano, Sandro Aguilar

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— original and international title: Patrick duration: 103 min aspect ratio: 2.39:1 format: 2K sound: 5.1 year: 2019 original language: Portuguese, French countries of production: Portugal, Germany production company: O Som e a Fúria co-production company: Augenschein Filmproduktion associate production company: zdf with the support of: ica, Tourism and Cinema Fund , Film und Medienstiftung nrw, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Eurimages, zdf, arte, rtp, Creative Europe programme of the European Unionç

f i l m m o s t llyy s h o t in t h e region of s e r ttÃã p o r t u g a l

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