O Fantasma (2000)

O Fantasma (2000)

87 min|Drama|20 Oct 2000

5.7Rating: 5.7 / 10 from 2,692 usersMetascore: 36

Young and handsome Sergio works the night shift as a trash collector in Lisbon, Portugal. He can’t force himself to connect with his pretty female co-worker Fatima, who displays an avid interest in him, so instead Sergio roams the city with the trash company’s pet dog. Eventually Sergio becomes fascinated with a sleek motorcycle, and then also its owner, Joao – a young man totally indifferent to Sergio. The frustrated trash collector’s surfacing sexual desires unleash his darkest impulses, sending him down a dangerous path of violence, depravity and degradation.

Director: Joao Pedro Rodrigues
Writer: Joao Pedro Rodrigues, José Neves, Paulo Rebelo, Alexandre Melo
Country: Portugal
Language: Portuguese
Duration: 87 min
Stars: Ricardo Meneses, Beatriz Torcato, Andre Barbosa, Eurico Vieira

Sergio (Ricardo Meneses) is a brooding, lonely man who works as a trash collector in Lisbon by day and roams the city streets by night seeking rough, anonymous sex with men in the city’s darkest, dirtiest corners. Sergio is alienated from life–he has no friends or family, and even his sexual encounters fail to engage him or satisfy his desires. One night he meets an attractive man who seems to be the embodiment of his tormented fantasies, and he becomes obsessed with the stranger until loneliness and unfulfilled desire propel him finally into a dark and dangerous animalistic state. Portuguese director Joao Pedro Rodrigues has crafted a haunting, feverish study of the alienation and despair that permeate modern urban life, and the profound devastation that solitude and repressed sexuality can inflict on the psyche.