” Trabalhar Cansa ” (” Hard Labour ”), the fruit of a long collaboration

Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra are presenting their first feature film, Trabalhar Cansa (Hard Labour), in Un Certain Regard and they are in the running for the Caméra d’Or. The two Brazilian filmmakers have worked together continuously for a decade and they have developed a common style.

“Trabalhar Cansa (Hard Labour) is the fruit of a decade of collaboration,” the two filmmakers confide. In fact, Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra, who will present their first feature film in Un Certain Regard, have known each other since their first year in film school at the University of Sao Paulo. Since then, they have created a series of collaborative works, from their first trial videos to their first feature film. Trabalhar Cansa tells the story of how Helena’s dream of opening a small grocery shop came true. This proved to be a difficult project because her husband lost his job at the same time, products went missing from the shop and a strange smell pervaded the premises, while a spot on the wall kept growing larger. A heavy feeling weighed down on everyone who came into the shop.

The story bears the mark of something unwholesome, rooted in daily life and the domestic world of the characters. “We wanted to explore the way that the family is affected when the roles are reversed in a way that upsets people’s habits.” From the very start of their collaboration, the two filmmakers have enjoyed creating a dialogue with the horror film and fantasy genre. “We are looking for the relationship between the subject and his or her own morbid aspects, instead of just applying simple clichés of the horror film to our work.”

A.C.

The film will be screened at 2:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., Salle Debussy.