PORTUGAL
2024 – DCP – color – 100’

Direction: Paulo Filipe Monteiro

Screenplay: Paulo Filipe Monteiro

Cinematography: Manuel Pinho Braga

Editing: João Braz

Set design: Luísa Bebiano

Original music: Jorge Moniz

Costumes: Teresa Samissone

Cast: Beatriz Godinho (Lídia), Duarte Melo (Nuno), Romeu Runa (Lauro), Custódia Gallego (Graciete), Lídia Franco (Maria José), António Durães (Aldo), Pedro Lacerda (Isac), Rita Loureiro (Carmo), Fran Martinéz (Mário), Bartolomeu Figueira (Miguel)

Producers: Pandora da Cunha Telles, Pablo Iraola

Production: Ukbar Filmes

World Sales: The Open Reel

Synopsis

Clear Nights tells the story of two siblings, in a time when they both rediscover themselves, face their problems and undergo a profound inner transformation. Lidia struggles to cope with her newborn baby: she can’t handle the expectations, doesn’t recogniSe her body, and distances herself from home and her boyfriend. Her brother Lauro works in a funeral agency. Divorced with a son, he grapples with accepting his bisexuality. Though the siblings rarely saw each other, their shared challenges bring them closer on a journey of rediscovery and profound inner transformation. The light at the end of the tunnel isn’t an illusion; the tunnel is.

The Director: Paulo Filipe Monteiro

Writer and director of the short fiction films Amor Cego (Three to Tango, 2010, Prize of the Jury at Córtex Film Festival) and Pas de Quoi (2020, Audience Prize at InShadow Film Festival), Paulo Filipe Monteiro wrote and directed the fiction feature film Zeus (2017), which won 13 prizes, including the Best Actor Prize at the 4th Indian Film Festival in Mumbai, four Prizes in the Official Selection of the XXII Paths of Portuguese Cinema (Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Wardrobe, Best Make-up) and the Grand-Prix and Best Male Performance at the 14th Agadir Festival Cinéma et Migrations. Clear Nights is his second feature film.

Director’s statement

“The light at the end of the tunnel is not an illusion. The tunnel is. Once we clear the numerous clouds and deadlocks inside our heads and emotions, we can start on a path to clarity.
I have read and heard many testimonies of women who underwent severe post natal depression, which silently affects so many women and also their partners. Contemporary Medeas, in present day Portugal! I also followed genre trouble, affecting people who can live happily when they have the conditions and the courage to overcome personal and social judgments.
For me it was important to have the characters interact through body movements and dance, instead of just words. And to show a Lisbon that had not yet appeared in cinema, with its surprising, modern architecture.”

Filmography

2010 Amor Cego (Three to Tango, short)
2017 Zeus
2020 Pas de Quoi (short)
2024 Noites claras (Clear Nights)

world premiere

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