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Vitalina Varela
Directed by
Pedro Costa
NR
2019
2h 4m
Drama
6.7
95%
56%
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A Cape Verdean woman navigates her way through Lisbon, following the scanty physical traces her deceased husband left behind and discovering his secret, illicit life.
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Where to Watch Vitalina Varela
Kanopy
Free
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Amazon Video
Buy $12.99
Rent $3.99
Apple TV
Buy $12.99
Rent $3.99
Cast of Vitalina Varela
Vitalina Varela
Ventura
Lina Varela
Manuel Tavares Almeida
Francisco dos Santos Brito
Imídio Monteiro
Marina Alves Domingues
João Baptista Fortes
Nilsa Fortes
Lisa Lopi
Benvinda Mendes
João Raimundo Monteiro
Bruno Brito Varela
Vitalina Varela Ratings & Reviews
indieWire
Eric Kohn
Another lyrical vision of somber people confronting their past.
AV Club
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
[T]he surface quietudes, somnambulant movements, and rigors of a film like Vitalina Varela serve to turn every subtlety, every crinkling plastic bag and squeaky door, into a reverberating event.
RogerEbert.com
Monica Castillo
A breathtakingly gorgeous movie about love, death, and immigration.
The Ringer
Adam Nayman
Costa-who is one of the great image makers-visualizes that sense of relief and renewal beautifully. It's amazing how powerful the sight of blue skies can be after being plunged into endless night.
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Vitalina Varela is demanding, rewarding, and ineffably stirring.
TheWrap
Dave White
Costa rejects voyeurism and condescension in favor of a form of storytelling solidarity with his actors, one where there's no buffer of irony, no distancing effects.
New York Times
Glenn Kenny
It's essential cinema.
Film Comment Magazine
Jordan Cronk
[Vitalina Varela] invests a tragic episode in its heroine's life with an intimacy and grace that forges new dimensions in Costa's cinema.
The New Yorker
Richard Brody
Spectacular images, ideas, emotions, and performances are embedded in the lugubrious pace and tone of Pedro Costa's modernist fusion of classic melodrama and documentary.
Los Angeles Times
Justin Chang
Your eyes drift toward every beam of light, every carefully placed pool of illumination in this grimly beautiful nightscape, the latest work by an artist who has found, in darkness, a remarkable new way of seeing.
812filmreviews
Robert Daniels
Masters of the elegiac need not measure every somber sigh. In this Portuguese drama, Costa proves his immense talent for matching the esoteric with the human.
Variety
Jay Weissberg
Only the powerful screen presence of the lead, whose life story this is, saves this punishingly dark work from drowning in its own purposeful opacity.
The Hollywood Reporter
Neil Young
Even if audiences find themselves adrift in the convolutions of the screenplay's non-linear narrative, there are near-incessant compensations in the form of Leonardo Simoes' cinematography.
Film Inquiry
Soham Gadre
It feels strange to say that Vitalina Varela is a visually stunning film because what it depicts is an ugly failing of people. It's a film submerged in regret, remorse, anger, and in some ways a faint light of hope (but just faint).
LarsenOnFilm
Josh Larsen
...a work of astonishing visual richness, boasting a depth of dark and light, a fullness of color, and an exquisite care for composition.
Nashville Scene
Jason Shawhan
If you can give two hours of your existence to a dark room and sincere thought, there's nothing more essential available right now.
Reeling Reviews
Laura Clifford
The film, shot almost entirely at night by cinematographer Leonardo Simões, is breathtakingly beautiful...In one beautiful bit of alchemy, clothespins appear as raised praying hands over black cloaks which dance as Vitalina edges past them.
The Baffler
A.S. Hamrah
There is a reason there are not many films like this. Vitalina Varela is so uncompromising and so concentrated that it threatens to absorb the projector beam...
Jaredmobarak.com
Jared Mobarak
Vitalina Varela isn't going to be for everyone as a result. It might be slow moving, but it's emotionally profound.
It's Just Movies
Ron Wilkinson
Masterful cinema and a no holds barred lesson about people who are counted out and find hope in themselves.
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