"Russa" at the Berlinale to raise awareness on 21st century housing

The short film by João Salaviza and Ricardo Jr, sponsored by Porto City Hall under the "Cultura em Expansão" cultural programme is not a film on the Aleixo neighbourhood, but it is the starting point for debating a current topic. And the topic is housing in the 21st century.

The construction type of social housing, building heights, established in the sixties and the seventies in Portugal but also in many European countries, has led to the furthest removal of people from historic town centres to the cities' outskirts or to less valuable neighbourhoods.

Some decades later, the situation is reversed as those so called "less noble" areas in the cities are being targeted by the real estate sector and the people who live there are viewed as a "problem".

This is the message that Film Director João Salaviza (awarded a Golden bear in 2012) conveyed at the 2018 Berlinale, regarding the short "Russa", shot at the Aleixo neighbourhood.

The leading actress of this short film, "Russa" (Helena) was is the audience to share her experience as a resident in Aleixo, and her return to the district after having been in prison and the fact that instead of finding five skyscrapers she finds three, because two had been demolished almost six years earlier.

According to Salaviza, Porto raised awareness of this reality, which is not its alone, as the gentrification process has a very strong impact in a city.