Our reviewer in…Maysa Moncao went to the Rio +, a mini-film festival at The Barbican and sends back this review of the drama A Wolf At The Door and explains what you can get out of such festivals.

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Wow! What an hectic month! I have just landed from Toronto and I am already catching up with the press screenings of BFI London Film Festival. Meanwhile, I could not refuse an invitation for the Gala opening night of Rio + Film Festival at The Barbican Center. The pocket film festival that runs untill Sunday 27th is a celebration of the 450 years of Rio de Janeiro. Not the glamourous Bossa Nova Rio, nor the filthy shanty town Rio, but the creative and aesthetic side of the city. Curator Adriana Rouanet, whose father wrote the most important law of funding to arts in Brazil, now wisely adopted in Italy, has had an important role in connecting Brazil and the UK for 18 years. The opening film was Wolf At The Door.

Based on real events, and set in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, Wolf At The Door tells the story of Sylvia (Fabiula Nascimento), who discovers that her 6 year-old daughter has been picked up at school by an unknown woman. Police summon her husband Bernardo (Melhein Cortaz, also in Elite Squad, 2007 and Carandiru, 2003) to the station for questioning. There he confesses his extra-marital affair with Rosa (Leandra Leal, also in The Man Who Copied, 2003 and The Oyster and The Wind, 1997). The plot is a twist on Medea’s classic myth and is by no means an easy ride for the audience.

Brazil is very often associated with passion, hot temper and impulsive manners. What if all those aspects were mixed together in a female character, resulting in a cold blooded femme fatale? Rosa escapes from the stereotype of Bond’s lovers and Lara Croft’s videogame heroine. Rosa is at the same time sweet and poisonous, just like any bud of rose with thorns. Like most women, she is complex. That is what makes her such an interesting character.

Coimbra’ s narrative fixes us on the suburb itself: it is a narrow, oppressive and tropical existence. On the suburbs, there is not enough air to breathe in peace. Not enough space to walk with freedom. The romantic turmoil is just a vivid tale of Rio de Janeiro, the wonderful city.

Rio + Film Festival also promotes encounters between producers of both countries, aiming new collaborations in the cinema market. So if you want to shoot in Brazil, there is a good opportunity to share information.

If you are instead a movie-goer, my suggestion is to catch Limite, today, at 4:15 pm, a revival of German Expressionism in Brazil in the 30s.

See the official trailer on Youtube

WOLF AT THE DOOR

 

 

BRAZIL, DRAMA, 2015, 100 MIN

DIRECTOR: FERNANDO COIMBRA

WITH LEANDRA LEAL, FABIULA NASCIMENTO, MELHEIM CORTAZ, JULIANO CAZARRÈ

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: .Fernando Coimbra is known for the “Tropico das Cabras”. Recently he shot two episodes of the Netflix series “Narcos” and will participate on the Screenwriter’s Lab in Sundance in order to develop another thriller.

Maysa Moncao