As part of the Cinema of the World programme, the 13th Dubai International Film Festival once again offers a platform for diverse movie makers to showcase their work.
This includes Marko Martins, the director of Saint George, a Portuguese movie starring Nuno Lopes (Alice, 2005) that portrays the financial crisis faced by the people of Portugal.
During an interview with Martins at Diff, he discussed how the film focuses on the life of an unemployed boxer named Jorge who, to persuade his family to stay in the country, becomes a debt collector.
“My movie is set up in the period of economic crisis in Portugal that was from 2010 to 2014, when we had a big financial issue and unemployment. This unemployment then leads a man into a job that makes him deal with the dark world of violence and crime,” Martins said.
The director said there were two layers while making the film.
“One was fiction and the other a documentary, where in the film I had to use a lot of real debt collectors, and I had to deal with both actors and non-actors while having to set up the right tone of language, which was my biggest challenge,” he said.
The movie, which was screen during the first week at Diff, has an impressive 8.5 rating on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).
— The Young Journalist Award (YJA) at Diff is a training programme for high school students who are aspiring writers and reporters. Eight students are competing at the festival this year between December 7-14. One winner will secure a month-long internship with Gulf News.
