Letters from Fontainhas: Three Films by Pedro Costa [Criterion Collection] [4 Discs] [DVD]

As issued by The Criterion Collection, this set brings together a trilogy of features helmed in the 1990s and 2000s by the Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa -- titles uniformly responsible for putting Costa on the map. All of the works in question are stark dramas, slow and understated ad extremis per Costa's style, and all deal with the desperation of those living in the dregs of society. Of this set, the 1997 Ossos tells of an initially suicidal young woman whose infant child gets snatched up by her ne'er-do-well boyfriend, prompting the mother to attempt to get the child back; the three-hour In Vanda's Room (2000) tells of an addict named Vanda who consumes vast quantities of drugs and sells vegetables to support herself; and the 2006 Colossal Youth resurrects characters from the prior two films, including Ventura from Ossos and Vanda from Vanda's Room, in its grim look at citizens struggling to survive in the slums of Casal Boba, Portugal. Bonus supplements include conversations between Costa and director Jean-Pierre Gorin about Ossos and Youth, Costa's video installation piece "Little Boy Male, Little Girl Female," photo galleries by Richard Dumas and Mariana Viegas, theatrical trailers for Youth and Room, and much more.