“To watch the films of Pedro Costa is to behold a cinema at once ineffably modern yet unassailably classical, and that is but one of their glorious paradoxes.”—Scott Foundas, LA Weekly

O Sangue (The Blood), Costa’s debut film, is the tale of two young brothers on the run from underworld figures and a vindictive uncle after the mysterious death of their father. Lush, stylized (shot in inky black-and-white), and at times romantic, the film is quite unlike Costa’s later work. (95 mins, 35mm)

Like the Dardenne brothers’ recent L’Enfant, Ossos (Bones) depicts the lives of impoverished young parents, here a distraught mother and a father who uses the infant as a prop for street begging. The first of a trilogy that explores life in the Lisbon shantytown of Las Fontainhas, the film is notable for the first appearance of Costa’s muse, Vanda Duarte. (94 mins, 35mm)

Thanks to Ricardo Matos Cabo for organizing this retrospective.