Death of a City

Synopsis

In the heart of Bairro Alto, right in the centre of Lisbon, the building of an old printing workshop is demolished to make way for a development of luxury apartments. Seeing this demolition, the director proposes to film an urban diary portraying the daily life of the construction site and those who work there. What starts out as a work-centred film turns out to be the story of the director's relationship with his hometown and with the people who build it, a polyphonic narrative made up of their life stories of labour and immigration, shining a light on the violence and destruction that hide under the progress of our cities.

Director Biography

João Rosas (1981) studied Communication and Cinema in Lisbon and Bologna. He attended the London Film School (MA Filmmaking) with an arts grant from Gulbenkian Foundation. He has published three books (short stories). He directed the documentary Birth of a City and few short films.