30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

A shepherd with a rough manner and his helpless cousin survive with difficulty in a bare hut by a lake. While the shepherd takes care of the animals and looks after their domestic life joylessly, the other man seems to be prey to mysterious dreams and visions of a better future. Oppressed by the most bleak poverty, their only wealth is a majestic white bull. The arrival of a harsh winter, which freezes the surface of the lake, pushes the difficult relationship between the two cousins, marked by misunderstandings and omens, to the extreme, until a break with devastating consequences. In their fourth collaboration, the two Portuguese directors combine the classic animated technique of oil painting on glass and its ductility with the potentially endless solutions of digital graphics. The result is a dark story that has the flavour of a fairy tale and the roughness of reality, an ancestral parable that contrasts man with Nature.

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  David Doutel

  Born in Porto in 1983, he studied Sound and Image at the UCP - Escola das Artes in Porto, where he met Vasco Sá. With him he worked on multiple projects, including the shorts The Shoemaker (2011), Soot (2014), Augur (2018, also at the XXV FFDL) and Garrano. They co-founded BAP – Animation Studio. They are currently working on their first animated feature film.

  
  

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  Vasco Sá

  Born in Porto in 1979, while studying Sound and Image at UCP - Escola das Artes in Porto, he met David Doutel, with whom he co-directed the shorts: The Shoemaker (2011), Soot (2014), Augur (2018, also at the XXV FFDL) and Garrano and is now working on their first animated feature film. They also co-founded BAP – Animation Studio, where they work as directors and producers.