Hotel guests allow their mutual emotions to reach boiling point.

Using the films of Ingmar Bergman and the plays of August Strindberg as examples, director João Canijo continues on the path he set out in Mal Viver: the unmasking of motherly love as cold egoism and emotional blackmail. In Mal Viver, the standalone first part of a diptych, we saw how the five women from one family who keep the hotel running suffocated each other in an intergenerational trauma.

In the second part, which can also be viewed separately from part one, it is the guests' turn to bring their emotions to a boiling point. Canijo shot his diptych in one go, which allows the different storylines to merge seamlessly. Mal Viver won the jury prize at the Berlinale last year, but for the total experience this second part is of course indispensable. Although as a viewer you have to be able to withstand Canijo's deeply gloomy view of humanity. Director João Canijo began his career as assistant director to big names Manoel de Oliveira, Wim Wenders, Alain Tanner and Werner Schroeter.