Exclusive: Cinema Guild Secures the Films of Margarida Cordeiro and António Reis

      Continuing their significant effort to acquire filmographies usually accessible only through extremely rare repertory screenings and low-quality DVD transfers, Cinema Guild—whose news we are excited to unveil—will be releasing the films of Portuguese directors António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro. The agreement includes their three feature films—“a renowned trilogy focused on the secluded, almost mythical Northeast of Portugal”—consisting of Trás-os-Montes (1976), Ana (1982), and Rosa de Areia (1989). This deal was arranged by Cinema Guild's Peter Kelly and Edward McCarry in partnership with Cinemateca Portuguesa, which represents the films on behalf of Cordeiro, who also oversaw the digitization and restoration of these three titles.

      Cinema Guild’s release will kick off next month with the TIFF retrospective “António Reis & Margarida Cordeiro, Restored,” scheduled from May 8 to May 17, followed by additional screenings across Canada and the United States later this year; home-video and digital formats will also be available. Regarding TIFF's program, Senior Film Curator Andréa Picard remarked, “Ready for exploration in North America, the works of Reis and Cordeiro have significantly influenced contemporary Portuguese cinema. Their collaboration created a blend of radical intent and style, fusing formal precision with sensuality that resulted in some of the most stunning visuals in film history.” At the same time, Rui Machado, director of Cinemateca Portuguesa, stated, “The films by Reis and Cordeiro, initially shot and exhibited on film, have not aged or lost their striking original essence in these newly restored digital versions.”

      Mostly unknown beyond Portugal, Reis (1927-1991) and Cordeiro (b. 1939) are highly respected figures within their homeland. Reis was a poet, folklorist, and ethnographer, while Cordeiro was a psychiatrist by profession. Through a small yet remarkable body of work, the pair developed a cinema of immense dedication, deeply connected to the language, labor, myths, and dreams of the people and land in Portugal’s remote Northeast, particularly the Trás-os-Montes region. Firmly grounded in the earth yet reaching for the cosmos, Reis and Cordeiro’s films reflect the profound, cyclical nature of folk tradition. Their cinema represents a blend of documentary and poetry, reality and imagination, the ancient and the avant-garde—a whirlwind of contradictions that are simultaneously harmonious and resolutely unyielding. Praised by influential figures such as Jacques Rivette, Marguerite Duras, João César Monteiro, and Joris Ivens, Reis and Cordeiro continue to have a significant presence in Portuguese cinema, especially in the works of Pedro Costa, a former student of Reis.