PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Kleber Mendonça Filho, director of Aquarius from the 69th Cannes Film Festival.
Kleber Mendonça Filho presented his film Aquarius in the main competition of the 69th Cannes Film Festival. Playing the leading role in the film, Sonia Braga, whose praises are sung by the director in this interview. The film, in his words, would simply have been totally different without her. He also talks about the energy, memories and nostalgia that houses hold and evoke and how fascinating and essential these aspects were to the making of Aquarius.
AQUARIUS: 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 Avenida Boa Viagem, Recife. All the neighboring apartments have already been acquired by a company which has other plans for that plot. Clara has pledged to only leave her place upon her death, and will engage in a cold war of sorts with the company, a confrontation which is both mysterious, frightening and nerve wracking. This tension both disturbs Clara and gives her that edge on her daily routine. It also gets her thinking about her loved ones, her past and her future.
Michel Franco about "Dreams" : 'When the father says "It’s okay to help immigrants, but there are limits," that’s the biggest question in the film: can people [from different contexts] truly see each other as equals?'
"Future Future" director Davi Pretto: 'The apocalypse is not what Hollywood says it is, a huge bang. That's not the apocalypse. The apocalypse is happening every day.'
'The screenplay of "They Come Out of Margo"', says director Alexandros Voulgaris, 'started with another composer, then it became personal, and then it also became about female artists in the 70s and 80s.'
"Bidad" director Soheil Beiraghi: 'A lot is happening in Iran: there is life, their is beauty, and there is a happiness around, and we need to portray that.'