Historias que so existem quando lembradas (2011)

Directed by: Julia Murat | 78 minutes | drama | Actors: Lisa Favero, Sonia Guedes, Ricardo Merkin, Luiz Serra

In the fictional Brazilian village of Jotuombo, time seems to have stood still. There is a railway line, but it seems that it has not been used for decades. A handful of villagers, all well over seventy, wait meekly for their end. Their days are filled with routine acts. They all contribute to everyday life. For example, Madalena (Sonia Guedes) gets up before dawn to make bread for the villagers. When the bread is ready, she takes it to Antonio (Luis Serra), who runs the only shop in the village and with whom she bickers about how to put the bread in the otherwise empty counter. Then they drink coffee together. In the afternoon they go to church with the other villagers, after mass Madalena brings flowers to the grave of her deceased husband (at least; she puts it in front of the entrance gate of the cemetery, because it has been closed for years), eats she joins her ‘neighbours’ and returns home. There she writes a letter to her husband, which she can no longer send. Then she goes to sleep.

Every day Madalena follows the same ritual. The other villagers also live according to the same pattern every day. Then the rhythm of the deserted village is suddenly disrupted by the arrival of Rita (Lisa Favero), a young photography student eager to capture life in Jotuombo. Initially, this somewhat cheeky young lady is viewed with suspicion. Who is this intruder, who more or less invites himself to Madalena? The rippling, routine life of the villagers is brutally disrupted by Rita’s presence. However, the longer it stays, the more they thaw. They even let her take pictures of them. Madalena, who has always been very isolated from her surroundings, sees in Rita an ally in the male-dominated village and seems to be slowly breaking free.

‘Historias que so existem quando lembradas’ (‘Stories Only Exist When Remembered’, 2011) is the first feature film by Brazilian Júlia Murat, who also has a documentary, a short and a video installation to her credit. At first glance, the film looks like a silent portrayal of the entrenched lives of the inhabitants of a ghost village (and of course it is). As soon as Rita enters the film, a layer of dynamism is added to this rendering, which gives a deeper layer to the whole. ‘Historias’ is more than a story in which an outsider breaks the spell, something happens from within to the characters as well. Murat uses long, still and patient shots that have something of poetry. When we see the world from Rita’s point of view, the images are much more mobile, underlining once again the vitality and liveliness she brings. The inhabitants of Jotuombo have ‘forgotten how to die’, they are literally stuck in their routine. Rita, who is really only after beautiful photos and with her remarkable collection of cameras travels along the villagers to capture them on the sensitive plate, is one piece of contradiction: on the one hand she claims to have been born in the wrong time, on the other hand she goes she freaks out to music by Franz Ferdinand. For Madalena, she is the one who wakes her up. The special blossoming friendship between the two women forms the heart of the film.

Watching ‘Historias’ requires patience. The slow shots (which are certainly repeated regularly in the first half hour), however, are not dragging for a moment, but rather poetic. The fact that Júlia Murat has managed to do that is particularly clever. Her mastery of film technique plays a crucial role in this. Many scenes are pictures, for example a nighttime scene between the two protagonists, where an old-fashioned gas lamp is the only source of light. But ‘Historias’ is also surprisingly fascinating from a narrative point of view. So don’t miss out, your patience will be rewarded!