A campanha do creoula
Andre Valentim Almeida
Portugal | 2013 | 88 min
Language : Portuguese
Subtitles : English, French
Aboard the schooner Creoula on a scientific expedition, the film’s journey very quickly becomes even richer and more fascinating. An intimate and personal dimension emerges as the filmmaker holds his gaze and expresses his thoughts. An epic exploration of the history of Portuguese fishing off Newfoundland unfolds with the help of sumptuous archival images.
Aboard the four-mast schooner Creoula, Andre Valentim Almeida sets sail for the Savage Islands for the “greatest” scientific expedition. The aim of the enterprise is for the archipelago, which is subject to economic dispute between Portugal and Spain, to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The trip happens to coincide with the 2010 Football World Cup match in which the two countries are facing each other. But the rapture of the scientists is not enough to produce the film that the director was looking for. So, thanks to editing that is as bold as it is colourful, another story, that of cod fishing in Newfoundland - shaped by sumptuous archival images from the 1960s and punctuated with the memories of the filmmaker’s uncle, a fisherman in the North Atlantic - is interweaved with the first story. By playing with superimpositions and changes in rhythm, Almeida creates an intimate epic, which confronts the present with the myths of distant lands, with a history of heroic traits.
Emilie Bujès
