HORSE MONEY

Fontainhas no longer exists – except in the social conditioning of its residents and its preservation in cinema. The slum was demolished, but the interest it triggered in Costa continues unabated. Horse Money further expands the creative intimacy of Costa and Ventura, his recurring character tied to the non-professional actor. After the former’s contribution to the film, Costa himself says he doesn’t understand everything in the picture. Events begin in a hospital, or maybe a detention center, that by day seems so oppressive (it’s a rare sight, in any case, to spot sunlight around here) that it makes every outdoor shot suspect of being a flashback or hallucination. The presence of others – cronies, Vitalina Varela, a soldier-statue – is surely revelatory, and perhaps illusory. Aside from the uncertain or phantasmagorical chronology, the sudden music – in a montage of former Fontainhas inhabitants or in the elevator scene – muddles things even further, but Ventura – with trembling hands, an absent gaze, vivid and irrepresible memories from the Carnation Revolution – has the stature to pin down the center of the film. (Irina Trocan)