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A personal and intimate exploration of how cinemas in Recife reveal truths about society.
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Downtown Recife’s classic movie palaces from the 20th century are mostly gone. That city area is now an archaeological site of sorts that reveals aspects of life in society which have been lost. And that’s just part of the story.
"Acclaimed director of films like Bacurau and Aquarius, filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho makes his most personal and intimate movie in Pictures of Ghosts. Here, he makes use of tapes that he recorded throughout his life, mainly at the beginning of his adult life in the 1990s, to show how the world has changed - more specifically, Recife, almost always seen from the window of his house. From there, showing how cinema (and audiovisual in general) can turn anyone, any space or any animal into ghosts, Kleber gives a dissertation on how cinemas, as a place to be, have transformed and are, in fact, temples that house ghosts - either on the screen or even behind them. A powerful film, which balances between pessimism and optimism, and which dialogues with the reality of each person who is watching the film through Kleber's creative vision."