“Justa,” premiering in cinemas on Thursday, is a fiction feature film inspired by stories from those affected by the tragic 2017 fire in Pedrógão Grande, Leiria district, which resulted in 66 deaths and 253 injuries, destroying over 500 homes and 20,000 hectares of forest.
One year after the fire, Teresa Villaverde visited the region and was profoundly affected by what she saw and heard.
“I traveled those roads when everything was burnt, and the images seen on television or in photographs do not convey the impact of kilometers and kilometers of nothing but blackness, it was an overwhelming sight, and the complete silence. […] It was like the sound of the earth accusing us,” she said in an interview.
Affected by the horror of what she witnessed and all the media coverage, Teresa Villaverde sought to learn more about the survivors and recalls an episode that prompted her to make the film.
“I saw a lady who seemed old, sitting on a chair, away from the village, alone, looking at a valley and a completely burnt mountain. I was in the car and debated whether to stop and talk to her. I didn’t stop, and I blamed myself for not doing so, because that lady never left my mind. I believe it was she who started this entire process,” she recalled.
“Justa” is not a documentary; the intersecting stories are fictional but somehow representative of what it is to survive a tragedy like Pedrógão Grande, without needing to show flames.
The film features a child who lost a mother, a man living with a body mutilated by flames, a woman blinded after her husband’s death, and a psychologist trying to alleviate the suffering.
“We will never truly know what those people are going through, and those people realize they will never be the same,” the director stated.
During weeks of field research, alone, without a camera or recorder, Teresa Villaverde encountered people willing to share their experiences but still in shock, as if hoping that the fire could somehow be ‘undone’.
“Justa,” written and produced by Teresa Villaverde, features performances by Madalena Cunha, Ricardo Vidal, Filomena Cautela, Alexandre Batista, Anabela Moreira, and Betty Faria, among others.
The director admitted that it was “a very challenging film to produce,” due to the prolonged financial arrangements, filming in difficult locations, “and because of what it was about.”
“The crew was entirely Portuguese, and I think there was no need to speak; we all felt we were doing something – good or bad – special, and it had to be done with great care and respect,” she noted.
Teresa Villaverde believes that “Justa” can be an homage to the living because every year, only those who died in that fire are remembered.
As “Justa” premieres in cinemas, after its world premiere last October at the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival in Brazil, Teresa Villaverde is immersed “in an almost essay-like film about many things” and reflecting on “the Gaza issue.”
“What affects me most these days is the issue of Gaza, and one wonders, ‘what am I going to do now?’. I know many artists who are blocked, with no idea of what to do next. I think [I] may have found a way out, pondering with a saint. My radicalism will be the opposite, about good things and not bad ones,” she revealed.
