Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2018: #98. Pedro Costa’s The Daughters of Fire

The Daughters of Fire

Portuguese director Pedro Costa is ready for his fire walk and back with his first narrative project since 2014’s Horse Money. It seems the auteur will be one of several high profile helmers delving into their own takes on the musical with his latest, which details a journey made by three sisters who travel from Cape Verde to visit family in Fontainhas—only to find Fontainhas no longer exists. And so it seems Costa dreamt of Fontainhas again with The Daughters of Fire, as this will thematically relate to his previous titles dealing with the Lisbon neighborhood, as examined in 1997’s Ossos, 2002’s In Vanda’s Room, and 2006’s Colossal Youth. Although this doesn’t seem to be that film informed by the Stevie Wonder album Costa has ruminated about, based on his installation piece, also promises to be narratively comparable to his neglected 1994 title Casa de Lava.

Release Date/Prediction: The languorous cinema of Pedro Costa has appeared in nearly every major film festival, including competing in Venice with 1997’s Ossos, twice in Locarno with 2000’s In Vanda’s Room and 2014’s Horse Money, as well as Cannes in 2006 with Colossal Youth (his 2009 documentary Change Nothing premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight). Although details are scarce, Costa was supposedly well into production at the end of 2017, meaning a reappearance at Cannes, Venice, or Locarno is to be expected in 2018.