Berlin Panorama Title ‘Fogareu’ Snapped up by MPM Premium (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentAdding to its notable lineup in Latin American movies, Paris-based sales agent MPM Premium has taken international sales rights to “Fogaréu,” from writer-director Flávia Neves, part of Brazil’s new wave of female filmmakers, which is one of the most exciting developments the country’s cinema currently has going for it.MPM Premium is introducing the film at this week’s Berlin Festival, where it world premieres in Panorama on Feb.

15.First glimpsed at 2020’s Ventana Sur project market, “Fogaréu” shares a sense of attitude and a feminist agenda and a visual verve with fellow Brazilian Ventana Sur titles “The Pink Cloud,” Iuli Gerbase’s a sci-fi character-driven thriller, and “The Joy of Things,” Thais Fujinaga’s portrait of motherhood, also playing at the same market.

It begins, for example, with menacing shots of the Klu Klux Klan, marching towards the Brazilian colonial town of Goiás, or so it seems – until a reverse shot reveals they are members of a religious procession, seen from the disparaging point of view of Fernanda, the film’s protagonist.Fernanda, a modern Brazilian, has returned to Goiás, a traditional colonial town, to scatter her adoptive mother’s ashes.

Once in Goiás, however, she peels away layers of family secrecy to discover the truth about her own origins, which says a lot about conservative, rural Brazil.As she does so, a Brazilian sticks film noir adds layers of magic realism and builds into a lacerating depiction of racism, gender abuse and residual colonialism in provincial Brazil.“The plot is inspired by the story of my mother, who from childhood worked in conditions similar to slave labor for a rich landowner.