By Variety | Created at 2024-11-25 13:18:19 | Updated at 2024-11-25 15:36:00
2 hours ago
Two Brazilian titles, Marcelo Gomes’ “Portrait of a Certain Orient” and Marianne Brennand’s “Manas,” swept the three biggest awards at Spain’s Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival, which wrapped Saturday night in the Southern Spanish city.
With Brazil’s Marcelo Caetano scooping a fourth trophy of a total seven on offer for competition titles, Huelva served to confirm the building renaissance of Brazilian cinema, already seen in Karim Aïnouz making Cannes main Competition cut two years running – with “Firebrand” and “Motel Destino” – and Walter Salles’ comeback and Brazilian Academy Award entry “I’m Still Here’s” reaping a rave review and reporting in Variety and other media, prompting Oscar buzz.
“Portrait of a Certain Orient,” Marcelo Gomes, Brazil, Italy: Golden Columbus, Best Picture
Shot in black-and-white and a 4:3 box format, “Portrait,” which took Huelva’s Best Picture Golden Columbus, tells a tender, lamenting parable of the tragedy of bigotry and patriarchy, as Emir, a Lebanese Catholic, bound on a ship to Brazil in the 1940s, neurotically opposes sister Emilie’s courtship by an engaging Muslim emigré, Omar.
When the trio reach Amazon port city Manaus and Emilie sets her heart on marrying Omar, Emir attempts a tragic vengeance.
Sold by O2 Play and lead produced by Mariana Ferraz at Rio de Janeiro-based Matizar Filmes in co-production with Italy’s Kavac Film and Brazil’s Gullane, Muiraquitã Filmes, Misti Filmes and Globo Filmes,“Portrait” returns Gomes to the set-up his debut feature, Cannes 2005 Un Certain Regard breakout “Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures” – of viewing Brazil through the eyes of foreigners.
“In my film, I try to show that the only way to deconstruct prejudices is by viewing the world through the eyes of others,” Gomes has commented.
“Manas,” Marianna Brennand, Brazil, Portugal: Silver Columbus, Special Jury Prize, Audience Award
Some of recent excitement around Brazilian cinema has come from the emergence of a new generation of young female directors, whether of titles this decade, Flávia Neves’ (“Fogaréu”), Iuli Gerbase’s (“The Pink Cloud”), Thais Fujinaga (“The Joy of Things”) and Carolina Markowicz (“Charcoal,” “Toll”).
On the basis of “Manas,” her debut feature which won a Huelva Special Jury Prize and its Audience Award, Marianne Brennand now joins their ranks.
Set on Marajó island in the Tajapuru River in a lush Amazon rainforest, “Manas” was painstakingly documented over a decade by Brennand and shot with a documentary style of mobile camerawork and an attention to detail. It follows Marielle, 13, whose father sexually abuses her at home or when out hunting. She falls into a prostitution racket, operated on river barges, hoping it’s a passport to escape as tensions at her wooden hut film ratchet up.
A Best Director winner at September’s Venice Days, “Manas” is produced by Brazil’s Inquietude with Globo Filmes, Canal Brasil, Pródigo and Portugal’s Fado Filmes. It’s also associate produced by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and Walter Salles. “The narrative is both sensorial and emotional,” Salles has said.
“Memories of a Burning Body,” Antonella Sudasassi Furniss, Costa Rica, Spain: Best Director
Fruit of another building film scene, Costa Rica’s, Antonella Sudasassi Furniss’ “Memories of a Burning Body,” its International Feature Oscar entry, walked off with a Huelva best director statue, which adds to its Berlinale 2024 Panorama Audience Award.
Channelling the remembered experiences of three women in a present-day 71-year-old composite figure, who talks candidly in voiceover about her life and desires, the film “is the conversation I never had with my grandmothers,” Sudasassi Furniss declares in a pre-film intertitle. Bendita Film Sales handles sales on both “Memories” and “Manas.”
Other Competition Awards, Luisa Huertas, Manuel Raposo, Ricardo Teodoro
In performer awards, Mexico’s Luisa Huertas won best actress for her moving turn in Pierre-Saint Martin’s Guadalajara winner “We Shall Not Be Moved” as an ageing woman still hell-bent on killing the man who assassinated her brother at the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre. Varios Lobos produces with Los de Abajo Cine and 1987 Films.
Dominican Manuel Raposo (“Rafaela”) took the actor award for his bravado embodiment of a crack addict in “Bionico’s Bachata,” a wild, trippy, colorful, sometimes hilarious portrait of his battle to clean up his act and get money together before his fiancée returns from rehab. A “serious topic but handled via the absurd and dark comedy that we have in our culture,” Morales has told Variety, “Bachata” took a 2024South by Southwest 2024 Audience Award.
Completing Brazil’s four-prize sweep, Ricardo Teodoro nabbed supporting actor for his performance as Ronaldo, an older São Paulo gay escort and drug pusher who takes the protagonist Wellington in and teaches him the business but cannot provide him with the father figure Wellington is desperately looking for.
Acento Prize, Best Spanish Direction: “May I Speak to the Enemy?”; Juan Ramón Jiménez Award, Andalusian Talent: “Fandango”
A banner sales title for Filmax at next week’s Ventana Sur, “May I Speak to the Enemy?” chronicles the origins of celebrated Spanish stand-up comic Miguel Gila’s comedy of the absurd, tracing part of his humor to his years in 1936-39 Spanish Civil War, where he suffered through battles, hunger and a botched execution by a drunken firing squad.
The experiences inspired one of his most famous sketches, where he phones up the enemy to ask them to stop the war and, if it has to attack on Sunday, could it be after soccer matches?
“May I Speak to the Enemy?” is produced by Pecado Films, whose credits include Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes,” and Arcadia Motion Pictures, behind Oscar-nominated “Robot Dreams” and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts.”
“Fandango,” mixing live performance and archival footage to capture the legacy of Huelva-based flamenco fandango, took the Andalusian Talent Award.
