Mal Viver and Viver Mal by João Canijo premiere in France on [10/11/2023]

Mal Viver and Viver Mal (Midas Filmes), feature films by award-winning Portuguese director João Canijo, premiere in France on October 11, 2023 by UFO Distribution in more than 33 theaters across France and in 31 cities across the country.

After Mal Viver's appearance at the Berlin Festival (the first time that a Portuguese filmmaker had two films in competition at that festival, Mal Viver and Viver Mal), João Canijo was awarded the Silver Bear/Jury Prize. The films are now premiering in France after being shown at various international festivals.

João Canijo is an award-winning director who began his career as an assistant director to directors such as Manoel de Oliveira in the films: Francisca, Le Soulier de Satin; as well as Wim Wenders and Werner Schroeter. His first feature film, "Três Menos Eu", was the opening film at the Rotterdam Festival in 1988. Since then he has made more than 10 feature films, with which he was regularly present in official selections at international festivals such as Cannes, Venice and Toronto. Numerous retrospectives have been held dedicated to his work, namely in Busan, La Rochelle, Buenos Aires (BAFICI), Galicia (CGAI / Cineuropa) and Cineteca Nacional de México.

Mal Viver is the central film of the duo that mirrors it, Viver Mal. In the first, the film takes place in a hotel, where the central narrative is the life and relationship of three generations of women from the same family who manage the decaying space. With the arrival of the third member, Salomé (Madalena Almeida), the family's routine is shaken, mainly due to the troubled relationship that her mother, Piedade (Anabela Moreira) has with her. The film also features Rita Blanco (Sara) as the family matriarch.

In Viver Mal, João Canijo chooses a different perspective on events. Instead of following the story of the family that runs the hotel, the director explores the relationship between the guests. The first couple, Camila (Filipa Areosa) and Jaime (Nuno Lopes) are experiencing a crisis in their marriage; the second couple composed of Graça (Lia Carvalho) and Alex (Rafael Morais) has their relationship accompanied by Elisa (Leonor Silveira), Graça's mother, who intervenes in a dynamic with an already natural incompatibility; and finally we follow Júlia (Leonor Vasconcelos) and Alice (Carolina Amaral), a young couple who go through a conflict of interests, but which is driven to exhaustion by the interference of Judite (Beatriz Batarda), Júlia's mother. All these stories live in parallel in the film and give us a fresh look at the experiences of modern and absurd relationships.