Portuguese cinema is closely associated with slow, contemplative filmmaking, a tradition shaped by the late master Manoel de Oliveira and carried forward by directors like Miguel Gomes. The Metamorphosis of Birds, Catarina Vasconcelos's lyrical debut, is a fine example of that reflective, poetic sensibility. Browse Macca's Portuguese reviews below.
Rating: 2.5★
Cape Verde in the mid-1960s was a place caught between worlds. Still a Portuguese colonial territory (independence would not come until 1975), the archipelago was watching the old certainties crack under pressure from economic and social forces that no amount of tradition could hold back. The volcanic island of
Rating: 1.5★
French Polynesia has served as a canvas for European fantasy and anxiety in equal measure ever since Gauguin packed his bags and headed for Tahiti in the 1890s. That long history of outsiders projecting their desires, their guilt, and their authority onto the islands and the people who live there
Rating: 3.5★
The title alone tells you something about the world this film inhabits. "No Dogs or Italians Allowed" refers to the kind of signs that reportedly appeared outside lodgings and workplaces in early twentieth-century France, a blunt shorthand for the discrimination faced by the waves of Italian labourers
Genre Documentary
★★½ — The Metamorphosis of Birds (2020)
Genre Drama
★★½ — Cape Verde My Love (2007)
Film images and data courtesy of TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
The best new reviews, a buried gem with where to watch it, and where the every-country challenge is up to. Free, no spam.
Subscribe free