O Sangue (Blood), tells the story of seventeen-year-old Vincente and his ten-year-old brother, Nino, who must face the departure of their abusive father and its aftermath. With the aid of Vicente’s girlfriend, Clara, the trio attempts to pick up the pieces of their fractured family life while confronting an unwelcomed uncle and mobsters who try to collect debt that their father left behind.

Filmed in exquisite black and white, O Sangue marks a significant step in the career of Costa, who would eventually become one of Portugal’s most celebrated artists. While O Sangue is a first glimpse of his masterful use of chiaroscuro lighting, Costa has veered away from his debut’s formalist aesthetics in his subsequent films, which concentrate on his hypnotic portraits of real-life characters in the lower depths of Portuguese society.

The screening on 13 October will be followed by a post-screening talk in English with Pedro Costa via a video call.

The screening on 5 November will be followed by a post-screening talk in Cantonese with M+ Curator of Hong Kong Film and Media Li Cheuk-to and M+ Assistant Curator of Moving Image Francisco Lo.

Pedro Costa (b. 1958, Portugal) studied under filmmaker Antonio Reis at Lisbon Theatre and Film School in the 1980s. After the release of O Sangue (1989) at the Venice Film Festival, Costa made his second film Casa de Lava (1994) in Cape Verde. His next film Ossos (1997) was his first work shot in Lisbon’s impoverished Fontainhas district. Costa is regarded as one of the most unique figures in world cinema, employing dreamlike storytelling and haunting aesthetics in his docu-fictional explorations. His most recent film Vitalina Varela (2019) won the Golden Leopard and Best Actress Award at Locarno Film Festival.