Un Certain Regard: “The Dead Girl’s Feast” by Matheus Nachtergaele

Showing in Un Certain Regard, The Dead Girl’s Feast is a first film from director Matheus Nachtergaele, thereby qualifying for the Caméra d’Or competition. He is an acclaimed actor in Brazil, having appeared in The City of God by Fernando Meirelles and also Centro Do Brasil by Walter Salles.

“With The Dead Girl’s Feast,” states the director, “I tried to render the intimate portrait of a community deeply involved in a mystical cult. Every character in the village lives in his or her own particular state of mourning, each facing some sort of horror as they advance, day by day, toward the shared fate of all mankind. They are disjointed people, stupefied by life, throwing themselves to the ground, before the rags of their dreams, which are symbolized by the shredded dress of a dead child.”

In a small upper Amazon riverside community lives a courageous people under the presence of a Saint. Pilgrims are soon to arrive from far and wide to worship and be blessed by him at the shrine of the Dead Girl on the occasion of her 20th annual feast day. They will also eat and drink and be merry with the performance of Space Triplets. The Dead Girl’s brother has serious misgivings about how his sister’s memory is being exploited, and the deeply conflicted soul that lies underneath…

Matheus Nachtergaele on the themes of his film, “I have always been touched by the endless ability of living beings to adapt and transform in order to dodge the finite. In spite of the continuous threat, we all seem to move on. We are viruses, seaweed, and bacteria. We are animals and plants. We survive by ourselves or in groups, in the water, on earth, and in the air. “

At the screening of The Dead Girl’s Feast, producer Vânia Catani proclaimed, “Five years ago, I sat where you sit in this theatre and I dreamed about showing a film here. Now my dream has come true.” Director Matheus Nachtergaele, surrounded by cast and crew, concluded, “We are so proud and take this responsibility seriously, as ambassadors of Brazilian cinema seeking to become known to a greater public. This is our first screening and we observed a minute of silence before the showing as we did every day during the shoot, and now our hour has come. Thank you.”