Colossal Youth (2006) - full transcript
After the Portuguese government demolishes his slum and relocates him to a housing project on the outskirts of Lisbon, 75-year-old Cape Verde immigrant Ventura wanders between his new and old homes, reconnecting with people from his past. (from Wikipedia)
Like this living room furniture?
I also have a nice bedroom set.
I don't need one.
Are you clean, Nhurro?
I'm not the same Nhurro
you left in that hole,
in that shantytown.
But being really clean...
No one can claim that.
Being clean means
eating three full meals,
not stealing,
not wiping car windows,
having a decent job,
learning the ropes.
Fonta?nhas?
they razed it already?
There's nothing
but dirt, weeds and rats.
They relocated everyone?
Bete is the only one left.
I'm here with you
but my mind is back there,
with my mother.
She hasn't had a drink
in three weeks.
She's going through withdrawal.
She phoned me and said,
"When will you come visit?
"When will you come see your mother?"
Every time I say,
"Mama,
"it's a problem.
There's no one to replace me.
"But the first chance I have,
I'll come see you."
She said, "Son, the cachupa
is on the stove.
"It's hot. I'm expecting you."
She's already been relocated.
I have to open her water
and electricity accounts,
get some lamps,
a water heater, a stove,
a washing machine, carpeting,
clean everything up...
My father also called me,
"Son, I have my ticket
for a week from now.
"Hold on, Papa.
"I'm coming to help you,
to call a taxi,
"carry the luggage,
"take you to the airport,
"help you check in,
"weigh the luggage,
since you can't read.
"Then, if we have time,
we'll go have a beer,
"like father and son.
"I know you hoped to return
to Cape Verde to die.
"Mama thinks
you'll come back some day.
"As for me,
"I don't know."
Nha cretcheu, my love...
Being together again
will brighten our lives
for at least 30 years.
I'll come back to you
strong and loving.
I wish I could offer you
100000 cigarettes,
a dozen fancy dresses,
a car,.
that little lava house
you always dreamed of,
a threepenny bouquet.
But most of all,
drink a bottle of good wine
and think of me.
Here, it's nothing but work.
There are over a hundred of us now.
Did my letter arrive safely?
Still nothing from you.
Some other time.
Every day, every minute,
I learn beautiful new words
for you and me alone
made to fit us both,
like fine silk pajamas.
Wouldn't you like that?
I can only send you
one letter a month.
Still nothing from you.
Some other time.
I often get scared
building these walls.
Me with a pick and cement,
you with your silence,
a pit so deep,
it swallows you up.
It hurts to see these horrors
that I don't want to see.
Your lovely hair slips
through my fingers like dry grass.
Often, I feel weak and think
I'm going to forget you.
Good morning.
We sure have trouble with the keys.
But we'll find a solution.
How did you get in?
The door was open.
All alone again?
All alone.
We're better off alone...
2nd floor, right.
The living room is big.
130 square feet
of good construction.
There's room for couches,
a sideboard, a TV.
It can make a good lounge.
This is a move for the future.
This neighborhood includes
a day care center for the youngest,
and an outdoor center
for the older children,
social services for everyone,
a health care center,
a library,
a skating rink
and a police station.
It's full of spiders.
This bedroom is perfect
for you and your wife.
Usually, the wife comes along
to see the place.
Usually, the entire family, too.
Let's conclude with
the do's and don'ts for residents:
Unpaid rent means expulsion.
Unpaid water bill
means no showers.
Unpaid gas bill means no cooking.
Unpaid electricity bill
means no light.
Most of all, no dealing
of any kind on these premises.
Is that clear?
Everything all right?
The City has nothing bigger.
It's five rooms at the most.
How many children do you have?
I don't know yet.
- Yes?
- Does it work?
- Yes, it does.
- Good luck.
Thank you.
Papa, keep to yourself
what I'm going to tell you.
I made a pledge
to take my daughter
to F?tima.
- But keep this to yourself.
- I will.
I want to take a group excursion
with someone from around here.
If my daughter was born healthy
and if I was clean,
I'd take her to F?tima.
I'll come with you
and pay for the trip.
The cripple wants to go too!
He keeps pestering me.
I help him with stamps
from cigarette packets.
These ones.
The State already gave him a leg.
This time, it's for a motorbike.
He needs two pounds of these things
to get a motorbike.
If he wasn't so needy,
he'd get it in no time.
But since he's needy...
My methadone
also comes from the State.
The other day, the State
lost the key to the safe.
Panic!
They had to call in the army...
to give our methadone to us,
who were badly off.
So they showed up.
They always have to leave
two vials, just in case.
It has to be locked away.
It's more precious than gold.
I have to reduce the dose.
I sweat too much.
I have it down to 40.
But I have to go even further.
I'm tired of suffering.
You can't imagine what
my husband and I have been through.
No one would do
what he's done for me.
Really, no one.
The times I found him
alone at night, crying.
It's true.
He sold everything
to keep me from being in need.
The TV, the stereo, the DVD player,
at least seven cell phones.
Gold, everything.
He sold it all, everything.
The day I gave birth,
we didn't have enough money
because of those fucking drugs.
We had to take the bus...
the 155 bus
which goes to the hospital.
I had terrible pains.
Mother of God!
I made a fucking mess of everything.
she was born so tiny!
She looked like a little mouse,
with her skinny little arms and legs.
The Lord is home!
We've eaten already...
Did you think we'd wait for you?
- Papa, want some fruit?
- I'm full.
Did you come to eat with Vanda?
Cutlets.
Try to borrow your boss's van
so we can get rid of this shit.
I've had enough of these couches.
Papa, I can't believe what I see.
Looks like ghosts.
Like a woman or a girl.
White things...
They get up, sit down,
they move back and forth.
My daughter sees them too.
She never comes here by herself.
She gets scared.
I have to get rid of this junk
to buy new stuff.
Same for the bedroom furniture.
It's all falling apart.
The bed goes...
Like that.
If I had the money,
I'd buy new stuff.
One day, I found
a little white table,
brand-new...
If it had been nearby,
I'd have brought it home right off.
It had two panes of striped glass.
Really pretty.
When I went back there,
it was gone.
And I found a box
with a lamp like this one,
even bigger and newer!
He wouldn't let me take it.
He thinks he's a rich man.
He's ashamed.
I'm not.
I retrieve anything when I'm alone.
Papa, what about your old
furniture from Fonta?nhas?
Clotilde smashed it all.
Clotilde,
or a woman just like her.
What happened?
She smashed everything before she left.
She didn't leave a thing.
Not even the suitcase.
My new suitcase.
She took everything?
Where did you sleep?
On the floor.
Clotilde destroyed our iron bed.
It only happend to you.
You didn't have a fight?
She stabbed me with a knife.
With a knife?
Don't cross the silverware.
Want any more?
Had enough?
Papa, want any fruit?
I'm full.
You're married to Vanda?
An apple?
Why not.
Lento, is that you?
Lento!
Come and learn something!
Nha cretcheu, my love,
Being together again will brighten
our lives
for at least 30 years.
I'll come back to you
strong and loving.
I wish I could offer you
100000 cigarettes,
a dozen fancy dresses,
a car,
that little lava house
you always dreamed of,
a threepenny bouquet.
But most of all,
drink a bottle of good wine
and think of me.
Could you please open the door?
This is the fellow who comes by
from time to time.
I came to ask you something.
If you could help me out...
- Paulo?
- I'd be very grateful.
Sorry to bother you.
Some guy came by to beg
for money for your funeral.
I wanted to give him something,
but your mother refused.
My mother...
My leg is still weak.
No more crutches, Paulo?
He has as creep.
I taught him everything he knows.
Addresses, streets,
buzzers, doors...
He always waited downstairs.
I would go up.
I'd ring.
"Hello, Dona Gina.
It's Wednesday. How are you?"
"Fine, Paulo."Just a minute,
I'll see if I have anything."
And she'd come back
with a package of rice,
a can of sausages.
Then the next floor.
"Dona Teresa, how are you?
It's Wednesday. It's Paulo.
"And is your sister better?"
"She is, thank God.
The operation went well. And you?"
"I'm feeling a bit better too.
Thank God. "
"I'll see what I have."
And she'd come back
with socks, a pair of sneakers,
four euros.
"Here, Paulo. My son's gym shoes.
They might fit you."
"They should, Dona Teresa.
"Thank you very much.
"I hope your sister gets better.
See you next Wednesday."
Once downstairs,
"See what I managed to find
in one building?
"Do like I do and you'll go far."
A little later,
what does that moron go and do?
He gets a file folder, some paper,
puts on a half clean shirt,
and cuts to the chase.
He rings Dona Gina's door.
"Dona Gina, I have some sad news.
"Paulo the Crutch
"had his leg cut off
at the hospital.
"In despair, he climbed up
on Santa Cruz Bridge,
"threw himself in front
of a train and died.
"It can't be!"
"It's the truth."
"So I decided to come here
"and ask for donations
"from you and his other friends,
"so that he can have a decent funeral.
"To buy him flowers,
"a casket,
"a headstone."
But a few days later,
I went by Dona Gina's.
Imagine the lady's shock
when I knocked at her door!
She almost had a heart attack
when she saw me.
"You're alive, Paulo?"
"Yes, Dona Gina. Why?"
"My leg's doing better.".
"You know why I said that?
"A friend of yours
came by not long ago.
"He was taking donations
for your funeral."
"Unbelievable!"
He was out of luck.
Dona Gina was married
to a police detective.
I last saw him go by
in the police van.
Nowadays, I go around
to the same people,
and they're even happier
to give me things.
Your mother left me, Paulo.
- Why?
- I don't know.
- The flat's too big for you alone.
- It's for all of us.
What's in your bag, Paulo?
Toys I sell outside schools.
I don't make much.
Nothing at all.
Begging around here is useless.
Everybody's poor.
Thanks.
We'll need gas,
tobacco and matches.
We'll have to manage on our own.
Just when things are working for us,
this coup d'etat breaks out.
Soldiers all over...
Ferocious. With tanks...
checking IDs...
They're bound to come here.
Don't go out for anything.
I went to confession.
The priest asked me
if I ever ate human flesh.
Come learn the letter.
Yesterday at dawn,
they came in a jeep.
They took Jaya
to the Sintra Woods.
They beat him up
and tied him to a pine tree.
He was the first
but not the last.
Come and learn..
What's the use now?
The letter will never reach Cape Verde.
Being together again
will brighten our lives...
There's no more mail, Ventura.
No boats or planes or anything.
They're all on strike.
Another one departing...
Zita, Lena's daughter.
The usual poison.
It wasn't poison she took.
It was all the poison taken for her
before she came in the world.
See you, Ventura.
See you, Xana.
You hear a woman crying?
- No.
- Well, I do.
What I see are two turtles.
- See them in that corner?
- I don't see a thing.
Now I see a hen,
with its comb.
See it?
No.
Look, there's a uniformed cop
with a cap.
Behind him are lots of houses.
Under the cop, I see a lion
baring its teeth.
- A what?
- A lion...
baring its teeth.
I see a man and a woman.
The man has a tail.
- Where?
- Over the lion.
With a tail?
- Then he?s a devil.
- Probably.
Are you a good man or a bad man?
I?m a good man.
In the houses of the departed,
there are lots of things to see.
Where have tou been?
In Porto?
Did you see him?
I was in real pain.
I only heard someone crying
in the street.
You're a good man.
When they give us white rooms,
we'll stop seeing these things.
That's true.
It'll all be over.
It's hot!
Papa, Zita was your daughter,
but she was my sister first.
Right.
Nha cretcheu, my love...
Being together again will brighten
our lives
for at least 30 years.
I'll come back to you
strong and loving.
I wish I could offer you
100000 cigarettes,
a dozen fancy dresses,
a car,
that little lava house
you always dreamed of,
a threepenny bouquet.
But most of all,
drink a bottle of good wine
and think of me.
Here, it's nothing but work.
There are over a hundred of us now.
Two days ago, for my birthday,
I thought about you for a long while.
Did my letter arrive safely?
Still nothing from you.
Some other time.
Every day, every minute,
I learn beautiful new words
for you and me made to fit us both,
like fine silk pajamas.
Wouldn't you like that?
I can only send you
one letter a month.
Still nothing from you.
Some other time.
I often get scared
building these walls.
Me with a pick and cement,
you with your silence,
a pit so deep,
it swallows you up.
It hurts to see these horrors
that I don't want to see.
Your lovely hair slips
through my fingers like dry grass.
Often, I feel weak and think
I'm going to forget you.
How letter...
It's me, Paulo.
I had too much anesthesia.
My head...
They took flesh from this leg
and put it on this one
and to plug up the holes
the Lizaroff made.
It's a kind of scaffold like device
to stretch the bone.
But in my case,
it stretched the tendons too.
The doctors are all excited.
They're taking photos, making films.
They sent them to the United States
so their colleagues
can study the method.
In another two or three days,
they'll discharge me.
If they don't,
I'm leaving on my own.
It's costing me a lot.
I'm paying 12.50 euros a night
for a hotel room.
My girlfriend Paula can't pay.
She's sick.
It has to be my lady friends
from Pontinha,
de Colina do Sol and Benfica.
But they're fed up.
"Paulo, will these operations
go on the rest of your life?
"No, not if you find me a job
"in construction work: laborer,
"tiler, carpenter...
"Goldsmith would be perfect.
"It's the trade I learned
as a kid.
"I can do it all.
"Weld chains and bracelets,
adjust rings..
"I even did wedding rings.
"The Mint was home to me.
I want you to come with me
to see my mother.
Your mother?
I know she does her knitting
every afternoon.
on a cafe terrace in Trafaria.
She's all alone there.
I'm sure
if we go together,
she won't run away...
Seven or eight years ago,
it was a disaster.
I went with a buddy, Nhurro.
My Nhurro?
Yeah.
She got scared.
It's understandable.
She threw me 5,000 escudos.
"What can I do with 5,000,
you skinflint!
"Go up and get me more dough!"
If we go together
and you talk to her...
What would I say to her, Paulo?
"Hello, Lurdes.
"Remember this boy?
"This face tell you something?
"This dirty hair,
"these hands blue from the cold,
"these legs full of bullets?
"You don't remember, do you?
"I do.
"It wasn't you who washed him,
"gave him hot soup at night,
"went to fetch him
in the oil drum he slept in?
"Why these tears?
"Feeling regrets?
"I've brought you your son,
"just as he is.
"I did what I could."
I just want you to tell me
my daughter's address.
I haven't seen her in 15 years.
They told me I'm a grandfather.
Come on, dear!
Come on! Be careful!
Put on the coat!
Are you in pain, Ventura?
Let me by.
Let me by, Ventura!
Is it that rat again?
The shack floor is shaking.
We need bricks and cement.
Have you eaten?
Tonight, we'll sleep warm and cozy.
You're barefoot?
Don't you want the letter anymore?
I can't learn it.
I can't write and you won't write.
I'll get some electricity in here.
Electricity?
Monday, I have to go to Social
Security.
I have to go early to get a number
to wait on line.
I have to go to the cemetery
to clean my mother's and Zita's graves.
I haven't had the courage
to do Zita's.
Tomorrow, I stop mourning.
Enough is enough.
It's as if I were
in mourning for myself.
Papa, your socks don't match.
- Want some more?
- No.
I took your mother
some grilled chicken at the hospital.
The day you were born,
I was working on the building site
of a bank in the city.
My brother came by and told me
you'd been born.
How did you win over my mother?
It was at the ?guas Podres River,
in Assomada.
She was getting water in a can.
I was riding my donkey, Fogo-Serra.
It took me three years to win her over.
At first, she wouldn't even
look at me.
On July 5,
Independence Day,
she was there among the violins,
flags, accordions and drums,
and she started to sing,
Fifth of July, raise your arms,
Liberty!
Shout! Shout Cabral!
Peoples of liberated Guinea
and Cape Verde,
Raise your arms and shout,
Liberty!
I also have a nice bedroom set.
I don't need one.
Are you clean, Nhurro?
I'm not the same Nhurro
you left in that hole,
in that shantytown.
But being really clean...
No one can claim that.
Being clean means
eating three full meals,
not stealing,
not wiping car windows,
having a decent job,
learning the ropes.
Fonta?nhas?
they razed it already?
There's nothing
but dirt, weeds and rats.
They relocated everyone?
Bete is the only one left.
I'm here with you
but my mind is back there,
with my mother.
She hasn't had a drink
in three weeks.
She's going through withdrawal.
She phoned me and said,
"When will you come visit?
"When will you come see your mother?"
Every time I say,
"Mama,
"it's a problem.
There's no one to replace me.
"But the first chance I have,
I'll come see you."
She said, "Son, the cachupa
is on the stove.
"It's hot. I'm expecting you."
She's already been relocated.
I have to open her water
and electricity accounts,
get some lamps,
a water heater, a stove,
a washing machine, carpeting,
clean everything up...
My father also called me,
"Son, I have my ticket
for a week from now.
"Hold on, Papa.
"I'm coming to help you,
to call a taxi,
"carry the luggage,
"take you to the airport,
"help you check in,
"weigh the luggage,
since you can't read.
"Then, if we have time,
we'll go have a beer,
"like father and son.
"I know you hoped to return
to Cape Verde to die.
"Mama thinks
you'll come back some day.
"As for me,
"I don't know."
Nha cretcheu, my love...
Being together again
will brighten our lives
for at least 30 years.
I'll come back to you
strong and loving.
I wish I could offer you
100000 cigarettes,
a dozen fancy dresses,
a car,.
that little lava house
you always dreamed of,
a threepenny bouquet.
But most of all,
drink a bottle of good wine
and think of me.
Here, it's nothing but work.
There are over a hundred of us now.
Did my letter arrive safely?
Still nothing from you.
Some other time.
Every day, every minute,
I learn beautiful new words
for you and me alone
made to fit us both,
like fine silk pajamas.
Wouldn't you like that?
I can only send you
one letter a month.
Still nothing from you.
Some other time.
I often get scared
building these walls.
Me with a pick and cement,
you with your silence,
a pit so deep,
it swallows you up.
It hurts to see these horrors
that I don't want to see.
Your lovely hair slips
through my fingers like dry grass.
Often, I feel weak and think
I'm going to forget you.
Good morning.
We sure have trouble with the keys.
But we'll find a solution.
How did you get in?
The door was open.
All alone again?
All alone.
We're better off alone...
2nd floor, right.
The living room is big.
130 square feet
of good construction.
There's room for couches,
a sideboard, a TV.
It can make a good lounge.
This is a move for the future.
This neighborhood includes
a day care center for the youngest,
and an outdoor center
for the older children,
social services for everyone,
a health care center,
a library,
a skating rink
and a police station.
It's full of spiders.
This bedroom is perfect
for you and your wife.
Usually, the wife comes along
to see the place.
Usually, the entire family, too.
Let's conclude with
the do's and don'ts for residents:
Unpaid rent means expulsion.
Unpaid water bill
means no showers.
Unpaid gas bill means no cooking.
Unpaid electricity bill
means no light.
Most of all, no dealing
of any kind on these premises.
Is that clear?
Everything all right?
The City has nothing bigger.
It's five rooms at the most.
How many children do you have?
I don't know yet.
- Yes?
- Does it work?
- Yes, it does.
- Good luck.
Thank you.
Papa, keep to yourself
what I'm going to tell you.
I made a pledge
to take my daughter
to F?tima.
- But keep this to yourself.
- I will.
I want to take a group excursion
with someone from around here.
If my daughter was born healthy
and if I was clean,
I'd take her to F?tima.
I'll come with you
and pay for the trip.
The cripple wants to go too!
He keeps pestering me.
I help him with stamps
from cigarette packets.
These ones.
The State already gave him a leg.
This time, it's for a motorbike.
He needs two pounds of these things
to get a motorbike.
If he wasn't so needy,
he'd get it in no time.
But since he's needy...
My methadone
also comes from the State.
The other day, the State
lost the key to the safe.
Panic!
They had to call in the army...
to give our methadone to us,
who were badly off.
So they showed up.
They always have to leave
two vials, just in case.
It has to be locked away.
It's more precious than gold.
I have to reduce the dose.
I sweat too much.
I have it down to 40.
But I have to go even further.
I'm tired of suffering.
You can't imagine what
my husband and I have been through.
No one would do
what he's done for me.
Really, no one.
The times I found him
alone at night, crying.
It's true.
He sold everything
to keep me from being in need.
The TV, the stereo, the DVD player,
at least seven cell phones.
Gold, everything.
He sold it all, everything.
The day I gave birth,
we didn't have enough money
because of those fucking drugs.
We had to take the bus...
the 155 bus
which goes to the hospital.
I had terrible pains.
Mother of God!
I made a fucking mess of everything.
she was born so tiny!
She looked like a little mouse,
with her skinny little arms and legs.
The Lord is home!
We've eaten already...
Did you think we'd wait for you?
- Papa, want some fruit?
- I'm full.
Did you come to eat with Vanda?
Cutlets.
Try to borrow your boss's van
so we can get rid of this shit.
I've had enough of these couches.
Papa, I can't believe what I see.
Looks like ghosts.
Like a woman or a girl.
White things...
They get up, sit down,
they move back and forth.
My daughter sees them too.
She never comes here by herself.
She gets scared.
I have to get rid of this junk
to buy new stuff.
Same for the bedroom furniture.
It's all falling apart.
The bed goes...
Like that.
If I had the money,
I'd buy new stuff.
One day, I found
a little white table,
brand-new...
If it had been nearby,
I'd have brought it home right off.
It had two panes of striped glass.
Really pretty.
When I went back there,
it was gone.
And I found a box
with a lamp like this one,
even bigger and newer!
He wouldn't let me take it.
He thinks he's a rich man.
He's ashamed.
I'm not.
I retrieve anything when I'm alone.
Papa, what about your old
furniture from Fonta?nhas?
Clotilde smashed it all.
Clotilde,
or a woman just like her.
What happened?
She smashed everything before she left.
She didn't leave a thing.
Not even the suitcase.
My new suitcase.
She took everything?
Where did you sleep?
On the floor.
Clotilde destroyed our iron bed.
It only happend to you.
You didn't have a fight?
She stabbed me with a knife.
With a knife?
Don't cross the silverware.
Want any more?
Had enough?
Papa, want any fruit?
I'm full.
You're married to Vanda?
An apple?
Why not.
Lento, is that you?
Lento!
Come and learn something!
Nha cretcheu, my love,
Being together again will brighten
our lives
for at least 30 years.
I'll come back to you
strong and loving.
I wish I could offer you
100000 cigarettes,
a dozen fancy dresses,
a car,
that little lava house
you always dreamed of,
a threepenny bouquet.
But most of all,
drink a bottle of good wine
and think of me.
Could you please open the door?
This is the fellow who comes by
from time to time.
I came to ask you something.
If you could help me out...
- Paulo?
- I'd be very grateful.
Sorry to bother you.
Some guy came by to beg
for money for your funeral.
I wanted to give him something,
but your mother refused.
My mother...
My leg is still weak.
No more crutches, Paulo?
He has as creep.
I taught him everything he knows.
Addresses, streets,
buzzers, doors...
He always waited downstairs.
I would go up.
I'd ring.
"Hello, Dona Gina.
It's Wednesday. How are you?"
"Fine, Paulo."Just a minute,
I'll see if I have anything."
And she'd come back
with a package of rice,
a can of sausages.
Then the next floor.
"Dona Teresa, how are you?
It's Wednesday. It's Paulo.
"And is your sister better?"
"She is, thank God.
The operation went well. And you?"
"I'm feeling a bit better too.
Thank God. "
"I'll see what I have."
And she'd come back
with socks, a pair of sneakers,
four euros.
"Here, Paulo. My son's gym shoes.
They might fit you."
"They should, Dona Teresa.
"Thank you very much.
"I hope your sister gets better.
See you next Wednesday."
Once downstairs,
"See what I managed to find
in one building?
"Do like I do and you'll go far."
A little later,
what does that moron go and do?
He gets a file folder, some paper,
puts on a half clean shirt,
and cuts to the chase.
He rings Dona Gina's door.
"Dona Gina, I have some sad news.
"Paulo the Crutch
"had his leg cut off
at the hospital.
"In despair, he climbed up
on Santa Cruz Bridge,
"threw himself in front
of a train and died.
"It can't be!"
"It's the truth."
"So I decided to come here
"and ask for donations
"from you and his other friends,
"so that he can have a decent funeral.
"To buy him flowers,
"a casket,
"a headstone."
But a few days later,
I went by Dona Gina's.
Imagine the lady's shock
when I knocked at her door!
She almost had a heart attack
when she saw me.
"You're alive, Paulo?"
"Yes, Dona Gina. Why?"
"My leg's doing better.".
"You know why I said that?
"A friend of yours
came by not long ago.
"He was taking donations
for your funeral."
"Unbelievable!"
He was out of luck.
Dona Gina was married
to a police detective.
I last saw him go by
in the police van.
Nowadays, I go around
to the same people,
and they're even happier
to give me things.
Your mother left me, Paulo.
- Why?
- I don't know.
- The flat's too big for you alone.
- It's for all of us.
What's in your bag, Paulo?
Toys I sell outside schools.
I don't make much.
Nothing at all.
Begging around here is useless.
Everybody's poor.
Thanks.
We'll need gas,
tobacco and matches.
We'll have to manage on our own.
Just when things are working for us,
this coup d'etat breaks out.
Soldiers all over...
Ferocious. With tanks...
checking IDs...
They're bound to come here.
Don't go out for anything.
I went to confession.
The priest asked me
if I ever ate human flesh.
Come learn the letter.
Yesterday at dawn,
they came in a jeep.
They took Jaya
to the Sintra Woods.
They beat him up
and tied him to a pine tree.
He was the first
but not the last.
Come and learn..
What's the use now?
The letter will never reach Cape Verde.
Being together again
will brighten our lives...
There's no more mail, Ventura.
No boats or planes or anything.
They're all on strike.
Another one departing...
Zita, Lena's daughter.
The usual poison.
It wasn't poison she took.
It was all the poison taken for her
before she came in the world.
See you, Ventura.
See you, Xana.
You hear a woman crying?
- No.
- Well, I do.
What I see are two turtles.
- See them in that corner?
- I don't see a thing.
Now I see a hen,
with its comb.
See it?
No.
Look, there's a uniformed cop
with a cap.
Behind him are lots of houses.
Under the cop, I see a lion
baring its teeth.
- A what?
- A lion...
baring its teeth.
I see a man and a woman.
The man has a tail.
- Where?
- Over the lion.
With a tail?
- Then he?s a devil.
- Probably.
Are you a good man or a bad man?
I?m a good man.
In the houses of the departed,
there are lots of things to see.
Where have tou been?
In Porto?
Did you see him?
I was in real pain.
I only heard someone crying
in the street.
You're a good man.
When they give us white rooms,
we'll stop seeing these things.
That's true.
It'll all be over.
It's hot!
Papa, Zita was your daughter,
but she was my sister first.
Right.
Nha cretcheu, my love...
Being together again will brighten
our lives
for at least 30 years.
I'll come back to you
strong and loving.
I wish I could offer you
100000 cigarettes,
a dozen fancy dresses,
a car,
that little lava house
you always dreamed of,
a threepenny bouquet.
But most of all,
drink a bottle of good wine
and think of me.
Here, it's nothing but work.
There are over a hundred of us now.
Two days ago, for my birthday,
I thought about you for a long while.
Did my letter arrive safely?
Still nothing from you.
Some other time.
Every day, every minute,
I learn beautiful new words
for you and me made to fit us both,
like fine silk pajamas.
Wouldn't you like that?
I can only send you
one letter a month.
Still nothing from you.
Some other time.
I often get scared
building these walls.
Me with a pick and cement,
you with your silence,
a pit so deep,
it swallows you up.
It hurts to see these horrors
that I don't want to see.
Your lovely hair slips
through my fingers like dry grass.
Often, I feel weak and think
I'm going to forget you.
How letter...
It's me, Paulo.
I had too much anesthesia.
My head...
They took flesh from this leg
and put it on this one
and to plug up the holes
the Lizaroff made.
It's a kind of scaffold like device
to stretch the bone.
But in my case,
it stretched the tendons too.
The doctors are all excited.
They're taking photos, making films.
They sent them to the United States
so their colleagues
can study the method.
In another two or three days,
they'll discharge me.
If they don't,
I'm leaving on my own.
It's costing me a lot.
I'm paying 12.50 euros a night
for a hotel room.
My girlfriend Paula can't pay.
She's sick.
It has to be my lady friends
from Pontinha,
de Colina do Sol and Benfica.
But they're fed up.
"Paulo, will these operations
go on the rest of your life?
"No, not if you find me a job
"in construction work: laborer,
"tiler, carpenter...
"Goldsmith would be perfect.
"It's the trade I learned
as a kid.
"I can do it all.
"Weld chains and bracelets,
adjust rings..
"I even did wedding rings.
"The Mint was home to me.
I want you to come with me
to see my mother.
Your mother?
I know she does her knitting
every afternoon.
on a cafe terrace in Trafaria.
She's all alone there.
I'm sure
if we go together,
she won't run away...
Seven or eight years ago,
it was a disaster.
I went with a buddy, Nhurro.
My Nhurro?
Yeah.
She got scared.
It's understandable.
She threw me 5,000 escudos.
"What can I do with 5,000,
you skinflint!
"Go up and get me more dough!"
If we go together
and you talk to her...
What would I say to her, Paulo?
"Hello, Lurdes.
"Remember this boy?
"This face tell you something?
"This dirty hair,
"these hands blue from the cold,
"these legs full of bullets?
"You don't remember, do you?
"I do.
"It wasn't you who washed him,
"gave him hot soup at night,
"went to fetch him
in the oil drum he slept in?
"Why these tears?
"Feeling regrets?
"I've brought you your son,
"just as he is.
"I did what I could."
I just want you to tell me
my daughter's address.
I haven't seen her in 15 years.
They told me I'm a grandfather.
Come on, dear!
Come on! Be careful!
Put on the coat!
Are you in pain, Ventura?
Let me by.
Let me by, Ventura!
Is it that rat again?
The shack floor is shaking.
We need bricks and cement.
Have you eaten?
Tonight, we'll sleep warm and cozy.
You're barefoot?
Don't you want the letter anymore?
I can't learn it.
I can't write and you won't write.
I'll get some electricity in here.
Electricity?
Monday, I have to go to Social
Security.
I have to go early to get a number
to wait on line.
I have to go to the cemetery
to clean my mother's and Zita's graves.
I haven't had the courage
to do Zita's.
Tomorrow, I stop mourning.
Enough is enough.
It's as if I were
in mourning for myself.
Papa, your socks don't match.
- Want some more?
- No.
I took your mother
some grilled chicken at the hospital.
The day you were born,
I was working on the building site
of a bank in the city.
My brother came by and told me
you'd been born.
How did you win over my mother?
It was at the ?guas Podres River,
in Assomada.
She was getting water in a can.
I was riding my donkey, Fogo-Serra.
It took me three years to win her over.
At first, she wouldn't even
look at me.
On July 5,
Independence Day,
she was there among the violins,
flags, accordions and drums,
and she started to sing,
Fifth of July, raise your arms,
Liberty!
Shout! Shout Cabral!
Peoples of liberated Guinea
and Cape Verde,
Raise your arms and shout,
Liberty!