A Festa da Menina Morta by Matheus Nachtergaele

In a remote village somewhere near the Amazon river, the 20th anniversary of the Dead Girl’s Feast is being celebrated. People from the nearby villages come to take the blessing of a mysterious Saint, a young man who, a long time ago, performed a miracle and saved his mother’s life. But the preparation for the feast doesn’t go as smoothly as it should, as some unexpected conflicts appear.

Matheus Nachtergaele’s debut feature film explores the human need to believe in something, no matter how false it might be. His portrait of the Saint and the people that surround him is deliberately negative and coloured with irony.

The Saint is characterised as a feminised homosexual who is obsessed with the image that others have created for him. Although members of the local community mostly believe in his powers, he is actually an ’impotent’ man, unable to fulfill even simple tasks like bringing a glass of water to his thirsty aunt. Nevertheless, his father tries his best to exploit his reputation, transforming the religious fiesta into a spectacle of kitsch and bad taste, accompanying the music, rituals and stylised clothing with beer adverts. "Times change", says one of the characters. "Even the Pentecostals say it’s not a sin to get rich".

The cynical tone is underlined by the fact that the father shares the same bed with his son - and not just for lack of space. Their sexual relationship, a kind of a portrait of the ’holy family’, could be understood as an ironic reference to christian iconography, while the motifs of incest and homosexuality are bound together to form a symbol of non-productivity, selfishness and consentual abuse - not just between the father and son, but also between the family and the rest of the village. It’s interesting that even if the villagers are aware of everything that’s going on, they don’t care. ’The day is an illusion’, they sing. The fact that the Dead Girl didn’t speak this year is of little consequence to them : the only important thing is to believe in something, no matter how false it is.

Nachtergaele’s style is often grotesque and the over-the-top performances of certain actors is often irritating. Unfortunately the same can be said about some clichéd decisions in the portrayal of his characters and of the story’s development. However, the film’s ironic view of people’s need to believe in something means that A festa da menina morta still manages to be effective and thought-provoking.

Mario Kozina