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A SOMBRA DO PAI (THE FATHER'S SHADOW)
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Completed - BRAZILIAN-PORTUGUESE - Horror, Drama - 95 minutes

Log Line

When a child is forced to become the house’s adult because her father is sick and her mother is dead, there’s an inversion in the natural order of things. Childhood becomes a saga. And the frustrated parenthood turns into a conviction.

Previous markets

  • Ventana Sur 2014 (Debut)
Full history

Year of production : 2018

Director(s) : Gabriela AMARAL ALMEIDA
Writer(s) : Gabriela AMARAL AMEIDA
Cast : Julio MACHADO, Luciana PAES, Nina MEDEIROS

Producer(s) : Rodrigo SARTI WERTHEIN (ACERE), Rodrigo TEIXEIRA (RT FEATURES)

Synopsis

Dalva can’t communicate with her father, the bricklayer Jorge. They have a cold and distant relationship ever since she was born. Dalva’s mother died in childbirth. Deep inside, he blames Dalva and has never managed to forgive her.

The bricklayer does nothing, but to work. Dalva wants nothing, but her father’s affection. They live with Cristina, Jorge’s older sister, a single woman whose dream is to get married. The woman often turns to magic to try and get a husband. Dalva doesn’t like her; she thinks she is the way between her and her dad.

Under the influence of her aunt and the horror movies she watches on TV, Dalva tries all kinds of enchantment to solve her problems. Nothing works, until the day a classmate of hers gets seriously injured. During Saint John’s Eve, the boy belittles Dalva. She strongly wishes he dies. Then, the spark of a firecracker burns and sets the boy’s clothes on fire. Strangely, from this day on, all Dalva’s spells start to work, and her deepest wish comes true: Cristina leaves the house to get married.

Father and daughter are now living alone. But Dalva doesn’t know that Jorge is facing problems at work, ever since he witnessed the death of a work colleague, who fell off a scaffold. Jorge fears it may happen again, so going to work has became a nightmare. His constant headaches worsened. He doesn’t eat, he doesn’t sleep, he barely talks. Jorge was diagnosed as having depression, but won’t get treatment. Dalva suspects he is turning into a walking dead. Not to lose her father, she attempts to bring her mom back to life. She plants some of her mother’s belongings on the backyard, hoping she would reborn.

As Jorge becomes sicker – and, eventually, violent – a strange plant starts to grow on the backyard, feeding the girl with hope. She believes that sooner or later her mom will come back to solve all her problems.

Production

Country(ies) : BRAZIL

Financing plan : Fully Financed

Start of shooting : July 2016

Festivals and Awards

3º BRASIL CINEMUNDI 2012 (International Coproduction Meeting)
BrLab 2012 (Laboratório de Desenvolvimento de Projetos no Brasil - Bolivia Lab Award)
FUNDACIÓN CAROLINA 2013 (XI Curso de Desarrollo de Proyectos Cinematográficos Iberoamericanos)
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE 2014 (Grant as a Sundance Institute Feature Film Fellow)
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE 2014 (Directors Lab)
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE 2014 (Screenwriters Lab)
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE 2014 (Sound Lab)
Festival de Brasilia 2018 (Awards: Editing, Sound,Supporting Actress)
Rio de Janeiro IFF 2018


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