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João Salaviza

João Salaviza

Directing

Biography

João Salaviza (Portuguese: João Salaviza Manso Feldman da Silva; born 19 February 1984; Lisbon) is a Portuguese film director, screenwriter, editor, producer, and former actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including the Short Film Golden Bear, the Short Film Palme d'Or, and the Un Certain Regard. João Salaviza was born on 19 February 1984, in Lisbon, Portugal. His father is José Edgar Feldman, a film director, and his mother is a producer. He studied at the Lisbon Theatre and Film School and at the Universidad del Cine de Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His film Arena won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In 2012, his film Rafa won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. Salaviza worked as assistant editor in Manoel de Oliveira's Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl.

Known For

Sozinhos em Casa
8.0

No description available.

Sozinhos em Casa

1993
Regards d'enfance
10.0

No description available.

Regards d'enfance

1993
Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl
6.1

On a train to Algarve, a young man recounts to a fellow passenger his past relationship with an eccentric young woman.

Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl

2009
Mountain
6.4

Day breaks on the eighth floor in a suburban neighbourhood of Lisbon and 14-year-old David’s grandfather is still in hospital. Doctors give him only a few days to live. The imminence of death and the void that it will leave force David to become the man of the house, where he lives with his mother Mónica, who is in her 30s, and his three-year-old sister.

Mountain

2015
The Messenger
N/A

Fulfilling her work as a bailiff in Salvador, Íris delivers warrants and is often forced to execute orders that go directly against what she believes in. The job torments her. One day, with the disappearance of an activist after the execution of a warrant issued by her, the officer begins to investigate the crime and finds herself involved in the discovery of a large land grabbing scheme.

The Messenger

2024
Rafa
6.2

Rafa is a 13 years old kid concerned with his mother, held in a police station for driving without a license. The director shows a day in the life of a teenager who lives on a problematic area and discovers that her mother was arrested because of an automobile accident.

Rafa

2012
Arena
6.6

A young man under house arrest spends his time in the best way he can by making some tattoos. His relative peace is strangely disturbed when he's attacked and robbed by three kids from the neighborhood. From then on, he'll try to find the kids who took his money and maybe give them a lesson. But with those actions, comes the reflection of how things were and are in this place filled with violence and hostility. Is change possible?

Arena

2009
Elon Doesn't Believe in Death
5.4

As he does every single day, Elon goes to meet his wife at her workplace, but she is not there. He doesn’t find her at home as well, so he starts to retrace the path Madalena makes daily. In the morning after, Elon goes to the police station and files a report, runs into hospitals, morgues. Alone, he wanders through a metropolis, searching for news about the sudden and mysterious disappearance of his wife.

Elon Doesn't Believe in Death

2017
Two People
3.5

A man is seen by a prostitute in his home. They try to communicate. But the loneliness they both carry creates a gap between them, enabling that communication.

Two People

2004
In the Interstices of Reality or The Cinema of António de Macedo
N/A

He was the most prolific within the New Portuguese Cinema generation. He would try western spaghetti, esoteric allegory, supernatural, and science-fiction. Without state subsidies, he would quit filmmaking in the 1990s. Who remembers António de Macedo?

In the Interstices of Reality or The Cinema of António de Macedo

2016
When It Thunders
6.2

The relationship between António and Ruth ends unexpectedly when Ruth decides to live with Pedro, António's best friend. António doesn't fight back and lets himself drown. From the woods come Violeta and Gaspar, two strange beings, a mixture of fairies, demons and guardian angels, who help António overcome his depression. With the thunders the two characters return to their domains. And life goes on.

When It Thunders

2000
The Buriti Flower
7.2

Through her child’s eyes, Patpro will go through three periods of the history of her indigenous people, in the heart of the Brazilian forest. Tirelessly persecuted, but guided by their ancestral rites, their love of nature and their fight to preserve their freedom, the Krahô never stop inventing new forms of resistance.

The Buriti Flower

2024
No image
8.0

No description available.

Lumiar

2004
The Dead and the Others
5.9

Denying his duty and in order to escape a crucial process of becoming a shaman, Ihjãc runs away to the city. Far from his people and culture, he faces the reality of being an indigenous in contemporary Brazil.

The Dead and the Others

2019
Cerro Negro
6.3

Developing from an idea of diptych, the story of Anajara and Allison is told from two perspectives in continuity. If late night work complicates the life of one of them, the incarceration in jail of the other determines a cycle of separation. Salaviza's skill to direct amateur actors is showed in this film, one of his more precise works.

Cerro Negro

2012
To Our Friends
N/A

An intimate documentary exploring friendship, resilience, and love among a group of young people in Madrid. Through a cinéma vérité approach, the film captures their struggles, aspirations, and moments of joy amid economic uncertainty. A central thread follows Sara, who falls in love with another woman, navigating the excitement and vulnerability of new love. Her journey of self-discovery unfolds organically, adding depth to the film’s broader themes of identity and connection. With its raw, unscripted storytelling, To Our Friends offers a poignant look at contemporary urban life and the enduring bonds that sustain us.

To Our Friends

2025
L'Enfant du secret
N/A

Blanche, a social worker living in Southern France is assigned the case of a five year old deaf boy, who is found by a Gypsy lady after having been abandoned and tied to a shed near her trailer. The boy's life is in danger apparently because he is related to the family of a local politician who is seeking election as mayor. Blanche, though suffering from manic depression and thus emotionally vulnerable, decides to take charge of the situation, get her act together and besides being told to drop the case, seeks to discover the secret the boy has inside.

L'Enfant du secret

1996
Querença
9.0

In mid-September 1992, journalist Guida Fontes have to go to Luanda to cover the elections in Angola. In the meantime, she had committed herself to discovering and interviewing the poet Júlio Vera. In 1988, he wrote a series of poems in which he mysteriously anticipated the fall of the USSR. Guida has only 12 days to complete the mission.

Querença

2004
A Portuguese Film
N/A

A documentary about the world of portuguese cinema, with interviews with some critics and directors.

A Portuguese Film

2011
La leyenda de Balthasar el Castrado
5.0

At the end of the seventeenth century, in Naples, still dominated by the Spaniards, a young pupil, Balthasar,is castrated to preserve the purity and beauty of his voice. The Duchess dies and her son, the Duke of Arcos, takes charge of the inheritance, which includes Balthasar. With the entrance of Maria Loffredo, former lover of the Duke, a triangle is established that unchains tragic consequences to the allegedly callous life of Balthasar.

La leyenda de Balthasar el Castrado

1996