The Pink Jacket
In the comfort of her own home, Rosa Casaco plots and tortures opponents of the system using thread and sewing. A political music film about Rosa Casaco, a police inspector during the Portuguese fascist regime.
Date
2022
Role
Film Director, Art Director
The protagonist of this film, the Pink Coat, symbolises the PIDE (Portuguese political police) inspector, Rosa Casaco.
As director, I wanted to highlight certain aspects of the events surrounding this figure, counteract his oblivion and, through an allegorical cinematographic language, record another perspective of Rosa Casaco.
The children’s universe of the narrative is used ironically to precipitate a clash of languages. If, on the one hand, the aesthetics and music transport us to a more childish reality, the actions of the coat and other characters such as the iron are cruel and immoral, with no repercussions for the perpetrators.
The film makes use of childish aspects, gradually giving them a darker and more serious side. As people are not used, but coats and other items of clothing, this imagery seems innocuous, elaborated in the shadow of the imagery of childhood films, where everything is apparently safe.
Inside the dolls’ house everything looks new, pristine, as if they were toys fresh out of the box.
The costumes are characters: shirts, jackets, blouses that demonstrate their role in society or their gender: the red communist shirt that holds the revolutionary pamphlets, the General’s jacket that demonstrates his status and profession.
In that house everything is perfect and nothing is out of place, yet the Pink Jacket makes a point of ordering it in his own way: he plays games of interest and power, undoes shirts, removes coats in a dark cellar.
The doll’s house is the main setting, chosen for being the family cradle, the much-acclaimed home during the Estado Novo period, our domestic homeland. A place of intimacy and security where, at the same time, hideous situations take place.
In contrast to the children’s universe, the office, at the start of the film, is an adult space, dimly lit, where the story of the Pink Coat, Rosa Casaco, is consigned to the silence of the bookshelves, among so many other stories.
This evokes a practice that is common in different nations: hiding domestic stories that are embarrassing to tell. Limiting access to these memories, entrusted to sinister men of power.
Art direction and costume design
Process, objects and sets
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Porto Femme - Festival Internacional de Cinema
Best Animated Short Film - National Competition, Portugal, 2022
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Stoptrik International Film Festival
Special Mention, Slovenia, 2022
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Afrodite Shorts
Best International Short Film, Italy, 2022
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OJOLOCO - Latinoamerican Film Festival in Grenoble
Student Short Film Jury Prize, France, 2023
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Festival de Cinema de Traversées
Audience Award, France, 2023
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Festival Ibérico de Cinema de Badajoz
LUIS ALCORIZA Young Juror Award, Spain, 2023
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Rising of Lusitana - Animadoc Film Festival
Honourable Mention in the Professional Category by the Professional Jury, Poland, 2023
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FAFF - Factual Animation Film Festival
Special Mention in the Animated Documentary Category, United Kingdom, 2023
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FEINAKI Beijing Animation Week
MV Award, China, 2023
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Festival 3in1 Film Fest
Best Animated Film, Best Portuguese Film, Portugal, 2023
Screenplay and Direction: Mónica Santos
Cinematography: Manuel Pinto Barros, Pedro Negrão
Animation Director: Rita Sampaio
Composer: Pedro Marques
Lyricist: Pedro da Silva Martins
Art Direction: Mónica Santos
Actor: Gilberto Oliveira
Animation: Joana Nogueira, Mónica Santos, Patrícia Rodrigues, Rita Sampaio
Puppet Structures: Anna Deschamps, David Roussel, David Thomasse
Construction Direction and Props: Joana Nogueira, Patrícia Rodrigues
Set and Props Construction: Daniel Fonseca, Joana Nogueira, Matilde Camacho, Milton Pacheco, Nurian Brandão, Patrícia Rodrigues
Additional Props: Atelier02, Maria Nanim
Costumes: Mónica Santos
Seamstresses: Alexandra Barbosa, Fictional Tailors, Lurdes Sobrado, Olívia Santos
Animatic: Jorge Carvalho
Composition: Jorge Carvalho, Milton Pacheco, Sebastian Chala, Thierry Bouillet, Timothée Coquer
Colour Correction: Léo Mondon, Manuel Pinto Barros
Sound Design: Kévin Feildel
Bruitage: Bertrand Boudaud
Sound Mixing: Damien Tronchot
Choir Director: Raquel Couto
Lira Choir: Alice Martins, Amélia Leal, Beatriz Pinto, Benedita Carneiro, Carlota Lameiras, Carolina Barros, Gabriela Dias, Gabriel Ferreira, Laura Amaral, Leonor Parente, Luísa Martins, Margarida Amaral, Margarida Moreira, Maria Alice Sousa, Maria do Pilar de Mendonça, Maria Isabel da Silva, Maria Sampaio, Sara Almeida, Sarah Sampaio
Musicians: Carlos Soares, Luana Santos
Production: [Animais AVLP] Vanessa Ventura, Nuno Amorim
Executive Producer: Davide Freitas
Co-production: [Um Segundo Filmes] Humberto Rocha, Pedro Medeiros
Co-production: [Vivement Lundi !] Fabrice Dugast, Jean-françois Le Corre
Head of Production: Caroline Lafarge
Production Manager: Fabrice Dugast
Production Manager: Valérie Amour Malavieille
Assistants: Melissa Derennes, Nathan Santarossa
In co-production with: Arte France – Unité de Programmes Cinéma, Hélène Vayssiéres [in charge of Short Films], Sylvie Smets, Chafiâa Benaziza, Pascal Richard, Romain Froidefond
With the Support of: Centre National Du Cinéma Et De Lʼimage Animée, La Région Bretagne In Partnership With The Cnc, Procirep – Sociedade De Produtores, Angoa
Image Studios: Animais AVLP, Um Segundo Filmes
Compositing: Personne N’est Parfait!
Bruitage | Mix: AGM Factory
Laboratory: AGM Factory
Equipment: Filmesdamente, Filmes da Praça / Um Segundo Filmes
Production Support: A Casa Do Livro – Norprint, Casa Da Animação – Associação Cultural, Casa de Figurinos, Cristina Rebelo, Desocupado Porto, Duarte Ferreira, Fernando Carvalho, Filmes da Praça, Marcelo Lafontana, Patrícia Figueiredo, Play Audiovisuais, Qualia Prod, Sítio do Cano Amarelo
Financial support from: Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual, Portuguese Republic, CNC – Centre National Du Cinéma Et De Lʼimage Animée, Région Bretagne, Procirep – Société Des Producteurs / Angoa.