Watching Over Infinity
After a difficult breakup with Júlia, Leonor retraces the memories of their love, trying to understand why she became entangled in this toxic relationship. In an intimate dialogue with herself, she untangles the intensity of the moments that make her miss the very person who brought her so much misery.
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Henrique PrudêncioDirector
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Henrique PrudêncioWriter
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Henrique PrudêncioProducer
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Letícia Le BlancKey Cast"Leonor"
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Joana Guilherme PintoKey Cast"Júlia"
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Ricardo VarguesCinematographer
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Rita MarujoSound Director
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Inês AmaroArt Director
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Joana Guilherme PintoMakeup & Hairstyling
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Daniel M. SilvaExecutive Producers
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Ricardo VarguesExecutive Producers
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Henrique PrudêncioEditor
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Lara AmaralAssistant Director
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Ana ConceiçãoOriginal Music
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Project Title (Original Language):Vista Sobre o Infinito
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Project Type:Short
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Genres:Drama, Romance, LGBTQ+, Queer
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Runtime:16 minutes 2 seconds
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Completion Date:February 28, 2025
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Production Budget:1,200 EUR
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Country of Origin:Portugal
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Country of Filming:Portugal
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Language:Portuguese
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:1.85:1
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
Distribution Information
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MUNADistributor
Henrique Prudêncio first studied acting and later graduated in Documentary Filmmaking. He’s currently taking a Master in Film Project Development at the Lisbon Film School. In 2013 he founded Onírico Filmes, his own independent audiovisual collective, which produced over 50 internationally awarded films, commercials and music videos, including three of his short films, which were screened at festivals such as Hong Kong Indie Film Festival, London Indie Short Festival, FEST - New Directors Film Festival, among many others. He has worked as a film editor for over a decade, editing for directors such as Marco Martins, Inês Sá Frias and Leone Niel, and was named “Best Editor of The Year” in 2023 by Clube da Creatividade de Portugal. Henrique is currently finishing post-production on his first feature film.
Where do we draw the line between a healthy and toxic relationship? With this short film, my main aim is to start a conversation about psychological abuse in romantic relationships, and the many ways it can present itself. This type of abuse is not as straightforward to translate to screen as physical abuse, of which there are many more cinematic portrayals of. Having suffered through my share of toxic relationships, I feel the need to tell this story and draw attention to some of the signs, in the hopes of preventing similar situations from occurring.
This is a film with an unusual narrative device: while Leonor, the protagonist, narrates the action in the scene, Júlia is talking directly at her. Instead of voice-over narration, Leonor speaks, in the scene itself, about what she felt at that time. I wrote the script in this way in order to portray reality not as fact, but as the character felt it, through her own, perhaps unreliable, point of view. In this way, through the course of the film we realize that Leonor was not simply a blameless victim either, and that she too was a toxic force in this relationship. Just like the nature of their love, I wanted this journey to be told in a more complex and not so linear way.
The queer aspect of the story is also intentional and important. While societies seem to be increasingly open to diverse sexualities and orientations, little is said about abuse in LGBTQIA+ relationships. The nature of homosexual relationships, which sometimes are still forcibly hidden, means that they can become more vulnerable to isolation, leading at times to very intense and toxic relationships. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community myself, it was crucial to me to show that abuse also happens between queer people.
The placement of all scenes indoors reflects the most common nature of abusive relationships but also mirrors the confinement most people were forced to live through during the covid-19 pandemic, making it more relatable to viewers. The soundtrack was also a crucial element from the beginning, creating it with the composer not in post-production, but even before moving on to the storyboard and idealization phase. With the soundtrack already created, the visual elements were then made to match the music, rather than the other way around.