Isabel Ruth

Isabel Ruth (Tomar, 1940) is the face of Portuguese Cinema Novo, with her roles in Paulo Rocha's The Green Years (1963) and Change of Life (1966), and António de Macedo's Sunday Afternoon (1966). Before cinema, she was a dancer (she studied at the Royal Ballet School in London, then joined the Experimental Ballet Group, which later became the Gulbenkian Ballet). As João Bénard da Costa wrote, she is a "unique" actress, one of the rare actresses in Portuguese unique cinematography who "radiated a light of their own", "which only exists in cinema and only the camera discovers".

In 1967, she moved to Italy, where she mingled with artistic circles, becoming friends with Pier Paolo Pasolini (she was an extra in Oedipus Rex) and Bernardo Bertolucci. During this period, she appeared in three feature films (La rivoluzione sessuale, by Riccardo Ghione, H2S, by Roberto Faenza, and Il rapporto, by Lionello Massobrio, among several shorts), and performed in theater alongside Laura Betti. Shortly thereafter, she traveled to Nepal, India, and Istanbul, returning to live in Italy and Ibiza. Returning to Portugal in the 1970s, she was reborn in cinema in the 1980s, gaining a second life that continues tirelessly to this day, with over 100 titles in her filmography.

She worked with João Botelho (The Other One – 1982, and Hard Times – 1983); Jorge Silva Melo (August, 1987); José Álvaro Morais (The Jester – 1987 – and Moonfish – 2000); Manoel de Oliveira (Abraham's Valley – 1992, The Box – 1994, Voyage to the Beginning of the World – 1997, Anxiety – 1998, I'm Going Home – 2001, The Uncertainty Principle – 2002, Magic Mirror – 2005, The Strange Case of Angelica – 2010); again with Paulo Rocha (O Desejado ou As Montanhas da Lua – 1987, River of Gold – 1998, The Heart’s Root – 2000, Vanitas – 2007, If I Were a Thief... I'd Steal – 2013), Fernando Lopes (O Delfim, 2002), Alberto Seixas Santos (E o Tempo Passa, 2011), Pedro Costa (Bones, 1997), Teresa Villaverde (Alex – 1991, The Mutants – 1998); Sérgio Tréfaut (Viagem a Portugal – 2011, Treblinka – 2016, Rage – 2018), Manuel Mozos (Xavier, 1992), Eduardo Guedes (Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale – 1989, Pax – 1994), Raquel Freire (Rending, 2001), Margarida Gil (Adriana, 2004), Catarina Ruivo (From Now On, 2007), Mário Barroso (Moral Order, 2020), João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata (Where Is This Street? Or with No Before or After, 2023). Directors of the new generations, even while still students at film schools, often seek out Isabel Ruth to participate in their short films.

Among her collaborations with foreign filmmakers, notable works include Jean-Claude Biette's Three Bridges Over the River (1999), with whom she had made a short film in Rome many years earlier (Ecco ho letto), and films by Italian director Tonino De Bernardi (namely, Sorrisi asmatici - Fiori del destino, 1997, and Appassionate, 1999). She has won several awards. In 2006, she published Fotopoesia, a photobiography written in poems, and more recently, her first album, Português Suave, consists of ten songs with music and lyrics by her, and piano arrangements and production by the musician Agir.

LEFFEST pays tribute to Isabel Ruth with a selection of films in collaboration with the actress, who will accompany the screenings, speaking with directors, actors, and the audience.