Kleber Mendonça Filho
Behind the scenes of Bacurau (2019)'s shooting and pre-production. With exclusive images, directors Kléber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles show how they made the film an audience and critical success.
Clara, a 65-year-old widow and retired music critic, was born into a wealthy and traditional family in Recife, Brazil. She is the last resident of the Aquarius, an original two-story building, built in the 1940s, in the upper-class, seaside Boa Viagem Avenue. All the neighboring apartments have already been acquired by a company which has other plans for that plot.
Recife, undergoing so many changes, was the scene of a party of joy and tension, sports and politics. A happy experience, but full of the contradictions that make Brazil be Brazil and here wins the face and the space of Recife.
"My father asked me to show the laziness of the sleeping porter. Then I shot with a Canon camera and an iPhone. I edited on a PC with Adobe Premiere. Let it be a lesson. Dyego, resident of Camille Claudel Building."
Life in a middle-class neighbourhood in present day Recife, Brazil, takes an unexpected turn after the arrival of an independent private security firm. The presence of these men brings a sense of safety and a good deal of anxiety to a culture which runs on fear. Meanwhile, Bia, married and mother of two, must find a way to deal with the constant barking and howling of her neighbour’s dog. A slice of ‘Braziliana’, a reflection on history, violence and noise.
Claw, discipline, tenacity, physical strength and obedience; These are the treasures that are kept so that we may live a fuller and healthier life. Your body thanks you!
A not very good little digital still camera, our little neighbours and a football. Home movie.
In tropical Recife, in northeastern Brazil, temperatures drop to impossible lows and the inhabitants have to adapt. This 'mockumentary' gradually turns critical, looking at the climate, urban development and social interaction from every angle. Does a ray of sun pierce the clouds, after all?
Seventy critics and filmmakers discuss cinema around the conflict between the artist and the observer, the creator and the critic. Between 1998 and 2007, Kléber Mendonça Filho recorded testimonies about this relationship in Brazil, the United States and Europe, based on his experience as a critic.
Friday Night Saturday Morning is a small-scale romantic love story, shot with a digital camera in black & white and in a documentary style. We follow the conversation between two lovers, each on a different side of the world; he is in Recife, she is in Kiev. On one side is dark, on the other light, but both experience the same emotions and hence feel nearness and contact.
A middle-class family living in a house filled with superfluous electronic appliances see the arrival of a new item, a 29" TV-set.
A mother gives her daughter a box full of old, coloured little vinyl records. The daughter may listen to them, but she should never, ever, play the green one.
The urban legend of 'cotton girl'. The dead girl appeared in the bathrooms of schools to terrorize children.
A film photo-montage about an old house that belonged to a traditional local family that was later demolished.
Shining Sex features five poetic visions of sexual ecstasy by filmmakers Hadzihalilovic, Sion Sono, directorial duo Cattet and Forzani, Mandico and Mendonça Filho. The storylines range from a young man who falls in love with a mermaid to lovers who abandon themselves to sensual pleasure in a dance hall in Brazil.
