Pedro Costa's Vitalina Varela, his fifth trip through the slums of Fontainhas in Lisbon, focuses on the past of the Cape Verde immigrants who once lived there. "Your husband was buried a few days ago", is what Varela hears when she has just landed. "Portugal has nothing to offer you anymore." And that "nothing" in Costa's work becomes a mysterious and hypnotic web of musings, dreams and visions about postcolonial pasts with a ghostly character. Not surprising for a filmmaker who prefers to give his shots a picturesque dimension by means of chiaroscuro photography. Whit his unique blend of styles, influences and determination, the Portuguese filmmaker remains one of the most distinctive European film authors within the festival landscape today. (Film fest Gent)