Taprobana
Creative dry spell has been the in the center of many works of art. Taprobana is a comedy that puts the most famous Portuguese poet, Luis Vaz de Camões, through such an ordeal, when traveling through Indian jungle to see the love of his life, Dinamene. He really needs to finish his epic Os Lusiadas, a task not easy to accomplish when you are constantly high. Elephants, macaques, naked bodies and psychedelic images collide on the screen. The film premiered in the competition of last year’s Berlinale and was nominated for the European Film Academy Award for the best short film.
- Portugal, Denmark
- 2013, 23 min
- Director: Gabriel Abrantes
- Director of photography: Gabriel Abrantes
- Screenplay: Gabriel Abrantes, David Lasantha
- Cast: Natxo Checa, JaniZhao, Gabriel Abrantes, David Lasantha, João Pedro Vale
- Coproduction: 24 Frames, DOX:LAB
- Producer: Natxo Checa, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Marta Furtado
Gabriel Abrantes
Gabriel Abrantes has already made 15 films and he is also an experimental and video artist. He studied in New York and lives and works in Lisabon. His A History of Mutual Respect won the Best Short Film at the Locarno Film Festival in 2010. His production company A Mutual Respect stands behind films that were successful at the Venice Film Festival.
Vimukthi Jayasundara was born in Sri Lanka. He is an award winning director and visal artist. His debute The Forsaken Land was awarded the Caméra d'Or prize at Cannes. His second project, Between Two Worlds, was selected into the competition of the Venice Film Festival. And his third film Mushrooms was screened within Directors´ Fortnight in Cannes.