The Valley of the Cats
2020 · 10m · Portugal
Directed by George Daniell
Genres: adventure, comedy, experimental
Tones: absurdist, humorous, surreal
Two brothers steal a car in Lisbon and aim for a lighthouse. The trip is part road movie, part lo-fi descent into madness.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
8mm tape, a stolen car, and a lighthouse — none of that needs to add up. Daniell isn't making a road movie so much as proving aimlessness can be a discipline.
Lisbon-to-lighthouse car theft shot on 8mm tape — format as character, grain as third brother — is the right formal commitment for early-Jarmusch-on-holiday. Daniell's worth following.
Shot-on-8mm-tape is doing real character work here — the grain is the third brother, as advertised — and the stolen-car-to-lighthouse drift with the mysterious-rave-detour suggests Daniell really knows his lo-fi register. Format as identity.
Reviews
It's an endearing bit of DIY filmmaking that roams free, finds a destination, then heads off for another.