Brazil at Cannes reflects new vitality

Fernando Meirelles' 'Blindness' opens festival

By MARCELO CAJUEIRO

FEAST FOR THE EYES: Actor-turned-filmmaker Matheus Nachtergaele's 'Dead Girl's Feast,' about a young man chosen to be a religious leader in an isolated outpost of the Amazon rain forest, will play in Cannes' Un Certain Regard.

In a major coup for Brazilian cinema, Fernando Meirelles' "Blindness" will open Cannes, which represents the frosting on the cake for what is considered the strongest Brazilian presence on the Croisette in many a moon. A Brazil-Canada-Japan co-production, the English-language "Blindness" stars Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal in a thriller about a city succumbing to a blindness epidemic.

Walter Salles, whose "Motorcycle Diaries" vied for the Palme d'Or in 2004, will once again represent Brazil in Cannes' main competition with "Linha de passe." Co-directed by fellow Rio native Daniela Thomas, "Linha de passe" is mostly set in Sao Paulo's high-rise hell and revolves around four wannabe soccer-star brothers.

Also on tap for Un Certain Regard is "The Dead Girl's Feast" from actor-turned-filmmaker Matheus Nachtergaele, who makes his writer-director debut with the film. The drama concerns a young man chosen to be a religious leader in an isolated town in Brazil's Amazon rain forest.

"The recent Brazilian film production is outstanding," says Ilda Santiago, Cannes' correspondent in Brazil and co-director of Rio Fest. "The features have vitality and are very different from each other. This is a good year."

Adds Meirelles: "In 2003, I had forecasted the beginning of a Latin American wave of films, and I must confess I was a bit frustrated in the following years as my perception did not come true. With (these) 21 Latin American films in different selections of Cannes, I believe the wave is finally shaping up and showing its face and size."

In addition to Salles and Thomas' competition entry, representatives of Brazilian production companies, distribs and sales agents will be in Cannes to present a number of finished pics, works in progress and upcoming projects. Most of them will be part of Cinema do Brasil's delegation.

Conspiracao Filmes' Leonardo Barros says he will attend Cannes to pursue on-going negotiations for 17 co-productions with companies from Germany, Argentina, Uruguay, Spain, Chile, Mexico and the U.S.

Along with "The Dead Girl's Feast," Bananeira Filmes' exec partner Vania Catani will present another debut pic from a local star: Selton Mello's "December," an urban family drama set during Christmas.

Fabiano Gullane, exec partner of Gullane Filmes, will seek international sales agents for Lais Bodanzky's "Chega de saudade," the nearly completed "Devil's Reincarnation" from helmer-star Jose Mojica Marins and Nelson Yu Lik-wai's thriller "Plastic City," a Brazil-China-Japan co-production that finished lensing in May.

"My goal in Cannes is to wrap the commercial (paths) of these films," Gullane says.

Dezenove Som e Imagem's exec partner Sara Silveira will seek foreign partners for three projects now in pre-production: Marcelo Gomes' "Once Upon a Time Veronica," Esmir Filho's debut pic "The Celebrities and the Death Dwarves," and "Work Makes You Tired," the debut feature of Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas.