The first feature film by director Marta Mateus, “Fogo do Vento”, will be part of the “Currents” section of the New York Film Festival, the organization announced on Thursday.
The section where the film will be presented includes 12 feature films and 28 shorts from more than 20 countries, and aims to “draw a more complete portrait of contemporary cinema with an emphasis on new and innovative forms and voices”, according to the organization, in a statement.
Among the highlights of the “Currents” section is the world premiere of “Little, Big and Far”, by American Jem Cohen.
Also at the New York festival will be “Grand Tour”, by Miguel Gomes, which won best director at Cannes this year.
The 62nd New York Film Festival will take place in that North American city between September 27 and October 14.
“Fogo do Vento”, which premiered in Locarno, follows some of the protagonists of the director’s previous film, the short film “Farpões Baldios”, delving into the stories of a community in Alentejo, “in a political film that calls on the memory of previous generations”, going “from resistance to the Salazar dictatorship to the present time, in a reflection on war and peace”, which marks “the importance of her discourse in the current world context”, according to its presentation.
Marta Mateus’ first feature is a co-production of the Portuguese Clarão Companhia, owned by the director and cinematographer Pedro Costa, with the Swiss Casa Azul Films and the French Les Films d’Ici. “Fogo do Vento” follows on from the award-winning “Farpões Baldios”, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival during the Filmmakers’ Fortnight in 2017.
“One day, in the summer of 2017, a black bull appeared in my mind. A few days later, I saw the image of a fire, of scorched earth. I’ve learned to pay attention to signs, dreams, visions, to keep the slightest foreshadowing in an idea, in a breath of wind. These are the inaugural images from which I wove a plot that crosses the experiences of the people in my community in the Alentejo, the images of our memories and those that the imagination invents,” wrote the filmmaker in the note of intentions, quoted in a press release from Portugal Film.
