The Portuguese Nun (A Religiosa Portuguesa)

2009/127 mins/Portuguese, French w/English subtitles/Dir. Eugene Green
Cast: Leonor Baldaque, Ana Moreira, Adrien Michaux

Julie de Hauranne, a young French actress, arrives in Lisbon to make a film based on the 17th-century book Letters of a Portuguese Nun by Gabriel-Joseph de la Vergne. She quickly becomes fascinated by a nun who comes to pray nightly in the chapel of Nossa Senhora do Monte, where they are filming. During her time in Lisbon, the young actress has a series of encounters, which, like her past existence, seem ephemeral and lead nowhere. But after a night when she at last speaks with the nun, she glimpses the meaning of her life and destiny.

One of The Guardian’s Best Films of 2011 

‘Mesmeric, subtly comic and weirdly gripping, this drama set in gorgeous Lisbon is one of the year’s best.’ The Guardian

‘Radiant, perplexing and distinctive, Green’s world is a place where art and life converge’ Time Out

‘Gorgeous to behold, graced by a lovely fado score, this is exquisite cinema’  Daily Telegraph