Cannes

The Dead Girl's Feast

A Festa da Menina Morta  (Brazil)

By JAY WEISSBERG

"The Dead Girl's Feast"

A Bananeira Filmes production. (International sales: Spier Films, London.) Produced by Vania Catani. Directed by Matheus Nachtergaele. Screenplay, Nachtergaele, Hilton Lacerda.
 
With: Daniel de Oliveira, Jackson Antunes, Juliano Cazarre, Cassia Kiss, Dira Paes, Paulo Jose, Ednelza Sahdo, Conceicao Camarotti, Laureane Gomes.
 

Stage-bound dialogue lurches from one monologue to the other in thesper Matheus Nachtergaele's helming debut "The Dead Girl's Feast." Set in a remote Amazonia community that's installed a young mystic as a living saint, pic is maddeningly self-indulgent, pulling out many of the usual indie Latin cinema hallmarks, such as animal bloodletting, without bringing anything new to the concept. Only fests catering to "cutting-edge" fare will care to dine out on "Feast's" overheated repast.

"The Saint" (Daniel de Oliveira) is a petulant young man in a house dress channelling the spirit of a girl who died 20 years earlier. Everyone is gearing up for the annual festival in memory of her death, but the girls' brother Tadeu (Juliano Cazarre) is uncomfortable with his sister's appropriation. Meanwhile, the Saint's household is deeply troubled, not least by the incestuous relationship he has with his father (Jackson Antunes). Thesping is theatrical rather than cinematic, and Daniel de Oliveira, so charismatic in "Cazuza," just overplays. Pic shares a number of cast and crew members, including scripter Hilton Lacerda, with the deeply unpleasant "Bog of Beasts." Lensing, nicely composed, shuttles between observational and close-ups.

 

 

 

 

Camera (color), Lula Carvalho; editors, Karen Harley, Cao Guimaraes; music, Nachtergaele, Fatima Santagata, Pingarilho, Marcos Vasconcelos, Daniel de Oliveira; production designer, Renata Pinheiro; costume designer, Kika Lopes. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard), May 21, 2008. Running time: 114 MIN.