Madalena

A broken body in a white dress, lying lifeless in a swaying soya field. Who killed the trans woman Madalena, how and why is never revealed in the Brazilian film Madalena. In his assured debut, director Madiano Marcheti doesn't even reveal how the corpse was discovered. Yet the image of this motionless body lends an extra charge to everything that follows.

Marcheti follows three protagonists in turn. They don't know one another, but are all in some way connected through Madalena. Luziane, a club hostess, knocks on her door for money. Wealthy Cristiano inspects the vast expanse of soya fields for his demanding father. Trans woman Bianca and her girlfriends divide Madalena's things between them while reminiscing.

Marcheti shot the film in the agrarian region where he grew up, capturing with great visual flair this largely unfilmed rural part of Brazil. A place where big agricultural machinery crawls monster-like across the landscape and the farthest corners are known only to drones. A world that can also take on a spooky aspect – now and then, Marcheti inventively gives an eerie twist to even the most everyday scene. Madalena is above all a window on a world that is getting out of control. But Marcheti is also clearly making a statement about his country, which has the highest rate of murder of transgender people in the world. A plea for empathy, rather than pity.

Part of IFFR Young Selectors: Madalena.