Portal de Cartagena
www.portaldecartagena.com
La Mar de Músicas will celebrate María de Medeiros, a filmmaker and singer in this edition of the Cartagena festival, in which a special Portugal is made, the country of origin of the Pulp Fiction actress.
The most international Portuguese actress will perform, along with The Legendary Tigerman, on July 25, in the Patio del Antiguo CIM.
A day before, within the film cycle 'Portugal: so far, so close', coordinated by Joaquín Cánovas, will present the first film he directed, entitled 'Capitâes de abril'.
María de Medeiros is a versatile and surprising artist.
This actress, singer and film director, lover of philosophy and Carmen Laforet, was born on August 19 in Portugal, although, her childhood there was short since her parents, journalist she and composer he, they moved being very small to Vienna.
As a child she received a cosmopolitan education with classical music as a backdrop.
Not in vain he spent 20 years traveling between Vienna and his native Lisbon.
Often, she returned to Portugal by car for vacations and from an early age she was accustomed to cross Europe, passing through Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.
Maria says that her mother was always very good with languages, so every time they crossed a border they all automatically changed the language in which they communicated, without a doubt a good school to feed her cosmopolitanism and her idea of ​​Europe as a political concept and as a space of peace.
This European cosmopolitanism is present in the germ of his first feature film, 'Capitâes de abril' (2000), which can be seen for free in Cartagena within the cycle 'Portugal: so far, so close', with which La Mar de Músicas performs tribute to the Portuguese country.
'Capitâes de abril' is the story of the heroes of the Carnation Revolution of 1974 in Portugal and the project of a lifetime, which took 13 years to complete.
María de Medeiros started working on the film when at the age of 21 she realized that it was an enormous privilege to have lived the Revolution in her childhood and to have witnessed the true creation of democracy in Portugal.
According to María, television has made us believe that democracy is consolidated with the power of bombs, winning wars in which the civilian population dies but with her film she demonstrates that this is not always the case.
'Capitâes de abril' highlights the lesson that Portugal has taught the world.
He has shown this example, unique, of how a real democracy can be achieved through a pacifist and humanistic path.
What seduced Maria from the idea of ​​the Carnation Revolution was that it was carried out by very young people, who were 29 or 30 years old, but who had already experienced very difficult experiences and were able to finish in 24 hours with 48 years of dictatorship.
There are few examples of coups d'état with that democratic vocation that have returned power to civil society.
That is why the testimony of 'Capitâes de abril' is so important.
A testimony recognized with the public awards of the Arcachon and Cinesone festivals, as well as, with the Best Film Award at the Sao Paulo Festival, in addition, having been selected for the Cannes Film Festival.
In the film Stefano Accorsi, María de Medeiros, Joaquim de Almeida, Manuel Manquiña and Fele Martínez are part, among others, of an unbeatable international cast.
Shot in Lisbon, it also invites us to discover the Portuguese capital from another perspective.
The cycle 'Portugal: so far, so close', that La Mar de Músicas has programmed at the New Circus Theater in Cartagena, from July 22 to 26, brings together a series of films that transport us to an unknown Lisbon and that will prepare us to prepare an essential trip.
From 'Mysteries of Lisbon', by José Fonseca e Costa, based on the city guide written by Fernando Pessoa, to 'Fados', by Carlos Saura, one of his favorite films and which he confesses that Mariza's duo with Miguel Poveda made him cry.
As a filmmaker, she has also directed two short films, 'Severine C' and 'Fragment II', based on the work of Samuel Beckett, and the medium-length film 'The death of the prince', according to the work of his admired Fernando Pessoa.
But for her, who considers herself primarily an actress, cinema is still the seventh art, not the second industry.
Therefore, despite the many offers received, has not embarked on more commercial projects and has not succumbed to the temptation to embark on a career in Hollywood.
Since she opted for dramatic art at the age of 15, she made her debut in French theater and starred in her first film in 1990, playing the author Anais Nin in Phillip Kaufmann's 'Henry and June', a role that won her great success outside From Portugal.
His intense international projection has allowed him to work since then with directors of the stature of Itsvan Szabo, 'Meeting Venus' (1990);
Manoel de Oliveira, 'A Divina Comedia' (1990);
Bigas Luna, 'Huevos de Oro' (1993) with which he began his romance with Spanish culture;
Quentin Tarantino, 'Pulp Fiction' (1993);
Gonzalo Suárez, 'The detective and death' (1993);
or Juanma Bajo Ulloa, 'Airbag' (1996);
among others.
In addition Maria received in 1994 the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for the film 'Three Brothers', by Teresa Villaverde.
Outside the scope of cinema, De Medeiros has also developed an interesting musical career with three solo albums: 'A Little more Blues' (2006), 'Peninsulas & Continents' (2010) and 'Pájaros eternos' (2012) in which has experimented with fado, salsa, bossanova, jazz and even flamenco, and numerous collaborations with characters as disparate as the Italian composer Nino Rota, Joan Manuel Serrat, the Portuguese Misia, Raimundo Amador or the poet and musician Paulo Furtado , the rocker from Coimbra who is behind the Legendary Tigerman brand.
Both will interpret their already legendary version of 'These Boots Are Made for Walkin' in Cartagena, on July 25 on the stage of the School of Business Sciences UPCT (CIM).
These are just some samples that María de Medeiros is an artist and an atypical Portuguese.
When asked what he thought about whether Portuguese society is generally too melancholic he replied: yes, the Portuguese have to be convinced that they have the right to happiness.
She has been convinced for many years.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Cartagena
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