Five women are running an old hotel and trying to save it from inexorable decay. Guests arrive over the course of a weekend: a couple bears the wounds of a long-term misunderstanding; a domineering mother interferes in her daughter’s relationship; two girls try to save their own love story in the face of opposition from a possessive mother. Viver Mal is the reverse shot of Mal Viver, which is screening in the Competition: here, João Canijo reveals everything that was floating in the depth of field in this film’s mirror image. Reality becomes the intertwining and multiplication of different points of view; the intersection between what can be seen and what the eye misses. Like a play of light reflections, Viver Mal is Mal Viver in another dimension. The image is distorted, but at the same time seeks a new definition by relaunching itself into infinity.

　　The film, directed by John McPhail (Anna and the Apocalypse), tells the story of Dinah Little, a no- nonsense, curmudgeonly farmer, and Charlie, the unloved niece who Dinah begrudgingly takes in after discovering her in an orphanage. Dinah's farm is in the self-proclaimed "Pumpkin Capital of the World" where the biggest event of the year is a high-stakes, cutthroat giant-pumpkin-growing contest with an enormous cash prize. Charlie, who has a special bond with plants, decides to enter the competition where she and the other pumpkin growers face sabotage and a genetically engineered rival. As she nurtures her pumpkin ‘Peter’ and watches him grow, so does a bond between Dinah and Charlie.