The new project marks the return of Miguel Guilherme as the lead in ‘Encenação’, where he will portray a theater director preparing a new play, grappling with age and his relationships with the actresses,” the production company announced in a press release.
In ‘Encenação’, João Canijo collaborates again with a cast of actresses featured in his previous films, including Rita Blanco, Anabela Moreira, Beatriz Batarda, Madalena Almeida, Cleia Almeida, Vera Barreto, and Carolina Amaral, joined by Íris Runa and Ana Lopes.
This new film by João Canijo features cinematography by Leonor Teles, is co-produced with France, and has financial support from the Instituto de Cinema, the Tourism and Cinema Fund, and the Lisbon city council.
During the 1980s, João Canijo worked mainly as an assistant director alongside notable filmmakers such as Manoel de Oliveira, Paulo Rocha, and Wim Wenders, and released his first feature film, ‘Filha da Mãe’, in 1990, along with the television series ‘Alentejo Sem Lei’.
Since then, he has continued to work in film production, directed for theater, and created numerous feature films exploring Portuguese society over the past four decades, primarily focusing on family contexts and strong female characters.
Canijo’s narratives often highlight social issues such as machismo, immigration, prostitution, corruption, marginalization, limited social mobility, and socioeconomic challenges, as described by researcher Daniel Ribas in ‘A Dramaturgy of Violence: The Films of João Canijo’ (2019).
Illustrations of this observational approach through fiction include films like ‘Sapatos Pretos’ (1998), ‘Ganhar a Vida’ (2001), ‘Mal Nascida’ (2007), ‘Sangue do Meu Sangue’ (2011), and ‘Mal Viver’ and ‘Viver Mal’ (2023).
‘Mal Viver’ narrates the story of a family of women from different generations managing a hotel and “dragging a life torn by resentment and rancor,” disrupted by the unexpected arrival of a granddaughter, as noted in its synopsis.
The film, awarded at the Berlin Festival in 2023 and Portugal’s entry for an Oscar nomination, intertwines with the feature ‘Viver Mal’, which runs parallel to its storyline, focusing on the hotel’s guests.
In 2024, João Canijo debuted the series ‘Hotel do Rio’ on RTP, offering a “complete vision” of the narrative from these two films.
Both films and the series feature performances by Anabela Moreira, Rita Blanco, Madalena Almeida, Cleia Almeida, Vera Barreto, Nuno Lopes, Filipa Areosa, Leonor Silveira, Rafael Morais, Lia Carvalho, Beatriz Batarda, Carolina Amaral, and Leonor Vasconcelos.
After gaining acclaim at festivals and cinemas, the films ‘Mal Viver’ and ‘Viver Mal’ will be broadcast on RTP, respectively, today and on the 30th.
