‘Living Spirit’
Address: Cristele Alves Meira
artists: Lua Michel, Ester Catalão and Anda Padrão
Premiere: 9/6/23
Year: 2022
★★★
For some time now, it has been commonplace to see how many female directors have resorted to fantasy, magic, legend, or superstition to complete their films, particularly proposals that have female main characters (and often suffer because they are female). They almost open those doors in order to deal with issues where reason, logic and reason are not enough. In general, less actual size comes into play with subtlety or punctuality.
When it comes to French-Portuguese director Cristèle Alves Meira’s debut feature, ‘Alma viva’, things work differently. Reality is inseparable from ritual, superstition, and Witchcraft in the universe that is shown through the eyes of the French Salomé (Lua Michel), who spends the summer months at her mother’s house in a village in the Portuguese mountains. That’s why ‘Alma viva’ stands out with its clarity, roundness and beauty. Alves Meira puts on the stage the alien and irrational beliefs of a people seeking answers and remedies for their most brutal behavior.
other success film is the director’s ability to feed the lead girl’s gaze. (he ceases to be a simple observer to be part of an epic) with the women of his predecessors (grandmother, mother, aunt) who often invoke these magical or superstitious beliefs as an aversion to machismo.