Margarida Gil
Biography
Born in Covilhã, Portugal in 1950, she studied German philology in Lisbon. As a filmmaker, she can look back on a career spanning over 30 years with films including Relação Fiel e Verdadeira, which screened at Venice, and Rosa Negra, which was presented at Locarno. She was married to the director João César Monteiro and worked closely with him as an actor, screenwriter and assistant director. In 2005, she won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Rome International Film Festival.
Known For & Full Filmography4 Titles
Movie - 1979, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
In this highly theatrical TV production, Monteiro again draws on the world of folklore – and, more precisely, on the widespread sexual connotation of the pomegranate – to tell a tale of love, envy, treason and mistaken/double identities.
Movie - 1978, 2h 15m • as The Girl / The Devil's Woman
Parallel tales of young couples desperately escaping cruel false fathers, each couple on the run across different regions of the country and during increasingly contemporary time periods.
Movie - 1975, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
By cross-editing footage of Portuguese workers protesting against NATO forces and various movies, Monteiro shows how one 'sword' can confront the army.
Movie - 1989, 2h 15m • as Nun
The young girl, Antónia Margarida Castelo Branco, is handed over by her mother to Brás Telles de Meneses because of the obscure interests between rural aristocratic families in the North. Brás is a ruined man, a bohemian with a reputation for violence and erratic behaviour. Antonia’s fortune is the first sacrifice made by the young wife. Fascinated by the man who humiliates and ill-treats her, she follows him in a pilgrimage to increasingly barren lands, to increasingly less hospitable houses.