The best André Novais Oliveira’s movies

After having invaded liquid, gaseous and solid substances, a strange voice takes possession of a woman's body and for the first time experiences the taste of something truly human. Together, the voice and the body seek for belonging and an identity of their own as they question their roles within society.

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...

The story of a family who has their lives crushed by the tragedy of the floods in Mariana (Minas Gerais, Brazil)