A hotel by the northern shore of Portugal welcomes its guests over the weekend. A man is torn between being present for his wife and the space that his mother takes up between the two of them. A mother encourages her daughter’s marriage to enable her own love affair with her son-in-law. Another mother lives through her daughter, preventing her from making her own decisions – three families at the end of their cycles of acceptance.

Drawing inspiration from the plays of Strindberg and the films of Jacques Rivette, Joao Canijo’s Viver Mal along with its pair Mal Viver, form one of the most fascinating and ambitious cinematic projects in recent memory.