Macau-based, Portuguese film director Ivo Ferreira’s latest feature film, Empire Hotel was premiered at the Pingyao International Film Festival in China’s Shanxi province on Friday October 12. The 82-minute long “urban tale” was shot entirely in Macau and tells the story of two characters – played by the Portuguese actress Margarida Vila-Nova and Taiwanese British actor Rhydian Vaughan – and their connection to the “Empire Hotel” with the iconic Macau Floating Casino as its prime location.
Ferreira describes the movie as “melancholic.” “A hotel is a place for people to check in and check out; Macau is just like that,” he says.
The 43-year-old director, whose previous film Letters from War was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2016, arrived in Macau “by mistake” when he was only 18.
“I fell in love with the city and never really left. For me it was like checking into a hotel and I never did check out again; a place that has stopped for time,” Ferreira adds.
Except in reality, changes are hardly stoppable.
In Empire Hotel, Ferreira paints with his lens a city on the edge of transformation. Dramatic lighting – low-key, sharp and atmospheric – combines beauty, sorrow, darkness, light, passion and distance into one, beckoning feelings of incredible loss, as well as hope.
Ferreira calls it “my Macau.” “It’s so distant and yet so close to me,” he notes.
Vaughan, who has appeared in a number of popular movies such as Tiny Times, Girlfriend, Boyfriend and Monga, says the movie’s script was “a gift.”
“As a young actor, you always struggle against yourself. Empire Hotel has offered me the right role at the right time. It was as if everything I did before was to prepare me for the part.”
He says working with Ferreira was a “very natural and inspiring experience.” “Ferreira is a great artist. He is strict and yet creative, demanding and yet playful. On the set, he struck a very good balance as a director.”
The Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF) was launched by the acclaimed Chinese director Jia Zhangke in 2017. The Shanxi-native opened the second edition of the film festival, which runs from October 11-20 in the 2,700-year-old ancient city of Pingyao, with a warm welcome to an impressive lineup of Chinese and foreign guests this week.
Red carpet names included Liao Fan, Huang Xiaoming, Gordon Lam, Zhang Yibai, Zhao Tao, James Wang, Ren Zhonglun, Albert Lee and Sabrina Barracetti.
Set inside the UNESCO walled city, the PYIFF counts Marco Muller as its artistic director and has made use of a converted diesel factory as its miniplex screening hub to showcase independent cinema. Some 13 of its Chinese film selections, including Empire Hotel, were world premieres. Several more have been featured recently at the early Fall festivals in Venice, Toronto and Busan. International titles include the latest efforts by Romain Laguna and Ivan Ayr.