12/06/2024 - Manolo Solo, María de Medeiros and Branka Katić star in the story of uprooting, identities, new homes, discoveries and life twists

Director Avelina Prat and actors María de Medeiros and Manolo Solo on the set of The Portuguese House (© Carlos Lobo)

Avelina Prat has returned to directing after her debut film Vasil [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Avelina Prat
film profile], which competed in Warsaw and at the Seminci in Valladolid, winning the award for Best Actor (ex aequo) for Karra Elejalde and Ivan Barnev, and received the Cineuropa award at the Lecce European Film Festival, as well as six Berlanga Awards from the Valencian Audiovisual Academy, including Best Director and Best Film.

Shot this spring between Barcelona and Ponte de Lima (Portugal), and with cinematography by Santiago Racaj, her new film is entitled The Portuguese House. It stars Manolo Solo (Goya winner for his impressive supporting role in The Fury of a Patient Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Raúl Arévalo
film profile], and who we recently saw in Close Your Eyes [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Portuguese actress María de Medeiros (recently seen in Giorni felici and Moral Order [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Serbian actress Branka Katić (breakout star in Gato negro, gato blanco by Emir Kusturica, recently seen in films outside her native country such as The Roads Not Taken [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and The King's Man [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

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"We have a concrete life, a single life, and yet we are fascinated by others: by people we know or what literature or cinema shows us. But can we change what we have been given? Fight the past, leave everything behind? Is it possible to live another life: someone else's perhaps? It's an appealing idea," says Avelina Prat. "One of the pillars of identity is place, and the film discusses the search for that territory where you feel good, where you can be yourself. A place to stop running from, which has nothing to do with roots, but with finding," concludes the filmmaker.

With a script by the director herself and selected for the MIDPOINT Feature Launch laboratory, The Portuguese House tells the story of how the disappearance of his wife leaves geography teacher Fernando (Manolo Solo) devastated. Aimlessly, he impersonates another man as a gardener at a Portuguese villa, where he strikes up an unexpected friendship with the owner, Amalia (Maria de Medeiros), and enters a new life that does not belong to him.

Produced in Spain by Miriam Porté for Distinto Films, The Portuguese House found its travelling companion in the Portuguese production company O Som e a Fúria, led by Luís Urbano and Sandro Aguilar. Production is completed by the Valencian company Jaibo Films and Almendros Blancos AIE. It has the participation of RTVE, 3Cat, À Punt Mèdia and RTP, supported by the ICAA, the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Catalonia, Institut Valencià de Cultura, ICA, the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme and Eurimages, with financing from the Official Credit Institute (ICO) and the participation of CREA SGR. Bendita Film Sales is handling international sales, and it will be distributed in Spain by Filmax, and in Portugal by Desforra Apache.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)