1997 | Portugal | Fiction

Ossos (Bones)

  • Portuguese English 98 mins
  • Director | Pedro Costa
  • Writer | Pedro Costa
  • Producer | Paolo Branco

STATUS: Released

This film is currently not available.   

The first film in Pedro Costa’s transformative trilogy about Fontainhas, an impoverished quarter of Lisbon, Ossos is a tale of young lives torn apart by desperation. After a suicidal teenage girl gives birth, she misguidedly entrusts her baby’s safety to the troubled, deadbeat father, whose violent actions take the viewer on a tour of the foreboding, crumbling shantytown in which they live. With its reserved, shadowy cinematography by Emmanuel Machuel (who collaborated with Bresson on L’argent), Ossos is a haunting look at a devastated community.

Desperation Poverty Violence Community Tragedy
Film Organizations
The Criterion Collection
DISTRIBUTION