''Ossos'' (English: ''Bones'') is a 1997 Portuguese film directed by

Pedro Costa Pedro Costa (born 30 December 1958) is a Portuguese film director. He is best known for his sequence of films set in Lisbon, which focuses on the lives of the impoverished residents of a slum in the Fontainhas neighbourhood. Biography After comp ...

. ''Ossos'' was shot in the Fontainhas district of

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

(also known as "Estrela d'Africa"), where

disadvantaged The "disadvantaged" is a generic term for individuals or groups of people who: * Face special problems such as physical disability, physical or mental disorder, mental disability * Lack money or economic supportKingdom of Nepal: Economic and Soc ...

dwellers and

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from former

Portuguese colonies The Portuguese Empire was a colonial empire that existed between 1415 and 1999. In conjunction with the Spanish Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa ...

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live desperate lives. The film was nominated for the

Golden Lion The Golden Lion () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a ...

and won for Best Cinematography (

Golden Osella The Golden Osella () is one of the oldest and most distinguished awards presented at the Venice Film Festival. Named after the historic ''osella''—a commemorative medal given by the Doges of Venice to notable members of the Venetian Republic� ...

) at the

Venice International Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

in 1997. Costa further dealt with the now-defunct shanty district in his next two films, '' In Vanda's Room'' (2000) and ''

Colossal Youth ''Colossal Youth'' is the only studio album by Welsh post-punk band Young Marble Giants, released in February 1980 on Rough Trade Records. Young Marble Giants were offered the opportunity to record the album after Rough Trade heard just two son ...

'' (2006).

Plot

Tina is a young mother who has given birth to a newborn baby. She stays in a shanty apartment within the Fontainhas district with her unnamed deadbeat live-in partner. Her sister Clotilde, who works as a housemaid, stays at a nearby apartment with her daughter, Mauda. One afternoon, the father searches for food at a local market and takes meals from a local diner. At nighttime, the father wanders alone on the street, while Tina is feeling suicidal. She places a decompressed

gas cylinder A gas cylinder is a pressure vessel for storage and containment of gases at above atmospheric pressure. Gas storage cylinders may also be called ''bottles''. Inside the cylinder the stored contents may be in a state of compressed gas, vapor ov ...

beside her and the baby. The father returns home, and Tina drags him into a nearby room to be near her and the baby. Meanwhile, Clotilde stares silently in her apartment. The next morning, Tina leaves the child in the care of the father. Having not eaten in three days, he asks for food from locals on the street, while holding his child. A woman (later known as Eduarda) feeds the father and the baby a sandwich and milk from a nearby deli. Shortly after, the baby is taken to a hospital for immediate care. He goes outside and sits on a bench. He is approached by a nurse, who recommends her colleague, Eduarda. At nightfall, he returns to the hospital where Eduarda informs him the baby is quite ill. He goes outside to smoke, where Eduarda tells him a pediatrician is arriving the next day to run medical tests on the child. The father goes to Eduarda's apartment, where she feeds him a meal. The next morning, Tina stays over at Clotilde's apartment. Back at Eduarda's apartment, she asks the father about Tina; he responds Tina does not care about being a mother. Eduarda takes the child to her apartment and becomes its new caregiver. Meanwhile, Clotilde looks after Tina. The father returns and briefly converses with Clotilde. The father is given custody of his child again. Later on, Eduarda hires Clotilde as a housemaid five days a week. That same night, Tina searches for Clotilde but she is approached by her husband. Clotilde returns, stating she now works for Eduarda. Sometime later, Tina arrives at Eduarda's apartment, but finds no one is there. Instead, she finds a list of cleaning instructions Eduarda had written for Clotilde. Hours later, Eduarda returns from work where she finds Tina lying unconscious in the kitchen from another suicide attempt. Tina recovers, and Eduarda offers to have Tina stay with her. Simultaneously, the father stays with a prostitute, who offers to care for the child. Eduarda comes to Tina's apartment where she finds her alone. They bond while smoking cigarettes. Clotilde returns to clean Eduarda's apartment. She returns home, and she and Tina have a moment together at Tina's apartment. Clotilde leaves and Tina shuts her door.

Cast

Source: * Vanda Duarte as Clotilde * Nuno Vaz as The Father * Maria Lipkina as Tina * Isabel Ruth as Eduarda * Inês Medeiros as Whore * Miguel Sermão as Clotilde's husband * Berta Susana Teixeira as Nurse

Credits

Source: * Director: Pedro Costa * Writer: Pedro Costa * Producer: Paolo Branco * Cinematography: Emmanuel Machuel * Costume design: Isabel Favila * Production design: Zé Branco * Sound: Henri Maikoff * Sound: Gérard Rousseau * Editing: Jackie Bastide

Home media

This film, together with '' In Vanda's Room'' (2000) and ''

'' (2006), was released by the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...

in a box set ''Letters from Fontainhas: Three Films by Pedro Costa''.

References

External links

*
Podcast with Pedro Costa (on the "Letters from Fontainhas" Criterion DVD set, 2010), GreenCine Daily''Pedro Costa's Fontainhas Trilogy: Rooms for the Living and the Dead''
an essay by Cyril Neyrat at the