07/08/2008

Shooting begins in Lisbon next week on João Pedro Rodrigues' much-anticipated new film Morrer como um Homem ("To Die Like a Man"). After a long financing process, the project is finally seeing the light of day, and is co-produced by Maria João Sigalho for Rosa Filmes (Lisbon) and Les Films de Pelléas (Paris).

The film is also backed by Eurimages (€240,000) and is supported by ICA and Portuguese public broadcaster RTP.

Morrer como um Homem follows Tonia, a transvestite who tries to progressively erase all traces of her original male identity. The transformation is nevertheless incomplete and she will die tragically and like a man, as states the name on her headstone.

Rodrigues met with transvestites and transsexuals for several months when gathering material for his script. "The writing took shape around the demands of the construction of the dialogue within the musical, melodrama and tragedy genres. My characters – as well as the stories and relationships between them – deliberately exclude themselves or have been excluded from certain standard models," said the director.

Morrer como um Homem is the third feature by the 40-year-old Rodrigues, after his acclaimed debut O Fantasma (2000) and Odete [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was shown in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes 2005.