Maya Da-Rin’s subtle, poetic debut about a man with a mysterious fever engages with the hidden lives of the Desana people of Brazil
Here is a mysterious and opaque movie, a feature debut from 42-year-old Brazilian artist and film-maker Maya Da-Rin. It does not give up its meaning easily, or perhaps at all. Newcomer Regis Myrupu won the best actor prize at the Locarno film festival for his understated performance as Justino, a member of the indigenous Desana people working as a security guard at a container port in Manaus harbour in northern Brazil. He is a widower, fussed over by his affectionate daughter Vanessa (Rosa Peixoto), who has just got into medical school at Brasília and will have to move away very soon and may not see her dad for many years. And perhaps that is what has caused a strange, profound unease in Justino. He suffers from...
Here is a mysterious and opaque movie, a feature debut from 42-year-old Brazilian artist and film-maker Maya Da-Rin. It does not give up its meaning easily, or perhaps at all. Newcomer Regis Myrupu won the best actor prize at the Locarno film festival for his understated performance as Justino, a member of the indigenous Desana people working as a security guard at a container port in Manaus harbour in northern Brazil. He is a widower, fussed over by his affectionate daughter Vanessa (Rosa Peixoto), who has just got into medical school at Brasília and will have to move away very soon and may not see her dad for many years. And perhaps that is what has caused a strange, profound unease in Justino. He suffers from...
- 8/3/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
A man is standing still, facing the camera. He wears a construction hat and a neon safety vest over a bulletproof one. It is nighttime, he’s shrouded in darkness. He closes his eyes as the camera slowly pans out, as if to better tune into his surroundings. The din around him suggests a natural scene, crickets drowning out all else. Only gradually do we begin to hear the sounds of machinery. As Justino (stoic newcomer Regis Myrupu) is lulled into sleep, a radio call brings him back into himself. It’s then we see he’s been standing in front of a shipping container, one of the many he’s tasked with patrolling during his shifts as a security guard at the Manaus cargo port.
This poignant opening moment sets up the tensions between nature and modernity, labor and rest, that structure Maya Da-Rin’s captivating debut fiction feature,...
This poignant opening moment sets up the tensions between nature and modernity, labor and rest, that structure Maya Da-Rin’s captivating debut fiction feature,...
- 3/26/2021
- by Manuel Betancourt
- Variety Film + TV
Having first covered The Fever back in when it premiered at Locarno in 2019––where director Maya Da-Rin picked up the Fipresci Prize and Regis Myrupu won Best Actor––the acclaimed drama is finally getting a proper U.S. release this month on March 19, courtesy of KimStim. Ahead of the Virtual Cinema debut, we’re pleased to exclusively premiere the trailer for the mesmerizing portrait of the subtle yet profound details of the confrontation between indigenous ways of life and the pressures of Western urbanization set in Manaus, an industrial city surrounded by the Amazon rainforest.
Leonardo Goi said in his review, “The Fever, director-cum-visual artist Da-Rin’s first full-length feature project, puts a human face to a statistic that hardly captures the genocide Brazil is suffering. This is not just a wonderfully crafted, superb exercise in filmmaking, a multilayered tale that seesaws between social realism and magic. It is a call to action,...
Leonardo Goi said in his review, “The Fever, director-cum-visual artist Da-Rin’s first full-length feature project, puts a human face to a statistic that hardly captures the genocide Brazil is suffering. This is not just a wonderfully crafted, superb exercise in filmmaking, a multilayered tale that seesaws between social realism and magic. It is a call to action,...
- 3/2/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
TorinoFilmLab’s Mercedes Fernandez Alonso and Violeta Bava talk about the new structure.
Around 100 international first- and second-time filmmakers are gathering to pitch their projects to some 200 distributors, sales agents and festival representatives at this weeend’s showcase of TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) on November 21-23 at the Turin Film Festival in Italy. It is the culmination of a year of expansion and reorganisation at the prestigious year-round project and talent development initiative.
Artistic director Matthieu Darras stepped down in January to be replaced by two curators in newly created roles: Bosnian producer Amra Baksic Camo and Berlinale World Cinema Fund project...
Around 100 international first- and second-time filmmakers are gathering to pitch their projects to some 200 distributors, sales agents and festival representatives at this weeend’s showcase of TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) on November 21-23 at the Turin Film Festival in Italy. It is the culmination of a year of expansion and reorganisation at the prestigious year-round project and talent development initiative.
Artistic director Matthieu Darras stepped down in January to be replaced by two curators in newly created roles: Bosnian producer Amra Baksic Camo and Berlinale World Cinema Fund project...
- 11/22/2019
- by 1100976¦Gabriele Niola¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
The Golden Leopard goes to Portugal for Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela.
Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa received Locarno Film Festival’s top honour, the Golden Leopard, for his latest feature Vitalina Varela which had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s international competition.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The international jury headed by French filmmaker and novelist Catherine Breillat also presented the Leopard for best actress to the 55-year-old Cape Verde islander Vitalina Varela for her performance in the film named after herself.
This is the second time Costa had taken home one of the main awards...
Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa received Locarno Film Festival’s top honour, the Golden Leopard, for his latest feature Vitalina Varela which had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s international competition.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The international jury headed by French filmmaker and novelist Catherine Breillat also presented the Leopard for best actress to the 55-year-old Cape Verde islander Vitalina Varela for her performance in the film named after herself.
This is the second time Costa had taken home one of the main awards...
- 8/17/2019
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
The 72nd Locarno Film Festival drew to a close Saturday with Portuguese auteur Pedro Costa’s dark and detached film “Vitalina Varela” coming away with several awards together with superlatives from segments of the hardcore cinephile crowd, including jury president Catherine Breillat.
In announcing the Golden Leopard prize for the film, as well as best actress to its eponymous star, Breillat was emphatic in saying that Costa’s achievement goes beyond mere awards, insisting on its place in the cinema pantheon.
Costa was the most prominent name in the International Competition selection this year, which marked Lili Hinstin’s first edition as festival director. Other awards in the main section went to Park Jung-bum’s “Height of the Wave” (Special Jury Prize) and Damien Manivel as best director for “Isadora’s Children,” with the top actor going to Regis Myrupu in Maya Da-Rin’s “The Fever.” All the prizes reflected...
In announcing the Golden Leopard prize for the film, as well as best actress to its eponymous star, Breillat was emphatic in saying that Costa’s achievement goes beyond mere awards, insisting on its place in the cinema pantheon.
Costa was the most prominent name in the International Competition selection this year, which marked Lili Hinstin’s first edition as festival director. Other awards in the main section went to Park Jung-bum’s “Height of the Wave” (Special Jury Prize) and Damien Manivel as best director for “Isadora’s Children,” with the top actor going to Regis Myrupu in Maya Da-Rin’s “The Fever.” All the prizes reflected...
- 8/17/2019
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
The Brazilian filmmaker Maya Da-Rin has garnered attention for her documentaries Terras (2009) and Margem (2007), both shot in the Amazon region. Now, she is back with her fiction debut, an enigmatic film capable to explore the mystery of the Amazon forrest to create a dream-like atmosphere that impregnates the viewer like a burning fever. In it, Justino (Regis Myrupu), a middle-aged member of the indigenous Desana people in Brazil, begins to come down with a vague illness while working as a security guard at a shipyard in Manaus. His daughter Vanessa (Rosa Peixoto) is preparing to leave her father to study medicine in Brasilia. The two are caught between their family's past in the Amazon and their present in an urbanizing Amazon.We interviewed the writer-director about her new feature The Fever, which had its world premiere in the International Competition at the 72nd Locarno Film Festival.Notebook: What is your...
- 8/12/2019
- MUBI
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