Selection:
Director:
Country:
- Brazil
Format:
Type:
Film exhibited in Toulouse:
Script writer(s):
Synopsis:
Ana’s attempts to have her first baby completely on her own and away from her hometown don’t seem to be going well. She tries to take care of the flat she rents in central São Paulo, attend her medical appointments and everything else on her own, but eventually gives up and puts up a discrete ad for an assistant and nanny for the upcoming baby.
After many failed interviews, Ana meets Clara, a woman from the suburbs of the city who holds a degree as a nurse. In need of money, she is drawn to a job announcement that doesn’t interest any of her colleagues – the full-time care of a single pregnant woman. Clara and Ana have an instant connection.
Clara takes the job and moves from her suburban neighborhood to Ana’s flat downtown. Although the relationship between the two is mainly professional in the beginning, they soon realize they have similar personalities and taste for solitude. Clara notices something else in Ana: fear. Her pregnancy is not a safe one, and Ana has doubts about going on. One night, Clara hears Ana’s scream: the baby is coming early. Ana dies before Clara’s eyes as her son rips through her body.
It is no ordinary baby. To Clara, he looks a little like a wolf. Her first instinct is to kill it, but she cannot bring herself to do so. She carries it away. Across the town in the middle of the night, Clara goes back home and hides the baby from the world. She figures time will tell her what to do.
As time passes and the child shows traces of a violent behavior, Clara has to learn to see beyond the inhuman features. She has to try to teach the child good manners, and also keep it quiet and hidden: there is a chance they are being chased. The father of the child wants it back.
Visual concept:
In our short films and in our first feature film, Hard Labor (Trabalhar Cansa), we pursued a delicate balance between realistic narrative and the construction of a suspense atmosphere using genre-related elements. In this second feature film we intend to dive deeper into the horror and fantasy genre. Its aesthetics won’t be so naturalistic: we wish to create a modern fable that pays homage to films that had a big impact on us, such as Disney’s musical fables from the 30’s and 40’s, Charles Laughton’s “Night of the hunter” and the work by directors such as John Carpenter, Romero, Mojica and Walter Hugo Khouri. With this film, we also seek to better understand our own old relation with the horror genre, and at the same time not forget themes that are dear to us: the mother-child relationship, the social gap in the big cities and the nature of love.
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