Another day in the life of an elderly couple in the suburbs.

Backyard

With its obvious simplicity, the film’s title happens to set the mood of the film, or at least its guiding principle: staying anchored in everyday life. More precisely, the life of Maria José and Norberto, who have been married for 35 years and who live in Contagem, in the suburbs of Belo Horizonte. Their marriage is on the rocks, which leads their two sons to also wonder about the future of their own relationships with their wives. The story is quite ordinary. How can one capture such an impercep- tible shift in the heart of the banality of things, only made more noticeable by a crisis? Filming his own family, his own parents, his brother and himself, André Novais Oliveira has chosen to take his time. He shots long sequences, leaving enough time for the fictional situations on which he puts his characters to grow and unfold. Then he uses wide frames to linger on more mundane, concrete or at times farcical moments: eating an orange, cooking, watching television...

She Comes Back on Thursday

Juliana, temizlik görevlisi olarak iş bulunca, yaşadığı kenar mahalleden çıkarak Brezilya’nın kalabalık kentlerinden birine, Contagem’e taşınır. Kocasının yanına gelmesini beklerken yeni hayatına alışmaya çalışır, yeni insanlar tanıyarak hayata dair ufkunu genişletir.

Evden Uzak

In 2011, during a blackout in an outskirt neighborhood’s street, a family  – surrounded by candles that light conversations and thoughts  –  awaits the return of electricity. Now, ten years later, the light tries to impose its place towards the shadows of memory.

Ataléia Street

Zeca tries to get up early to catch the bus and arrive an hour and a half later at the neighboring town’s school, where he works as a librarian. Waking up early is evermore difficult: something prevents him from maintaining his routine. One day, Zeca meets Louisa.