Every morning Madalena makes bread for Antonio’s old coffee shop. And every day she crosses the railroads where no trains have passed for years, cleans up the gate of the locked cemetery, listens to the priest’s sermon and then shares lunch with the other old villagers.
Clinging to the memory of her dead husband and living in her past, Madalena is awakened by the arrival of Rita, a young photographer who comes to the village of Jotuomba where time seems to have stopped and people are stuck in their memories and daily rituals. And why is the cemetery locked?
The beautifully photographed debut film of documentary maker Julia Murat is a melancholy homage to Brazil’s Paraiba Valley, once a flourishing region that prospered thanks to its coffee plantations, now a derelict region full of empty estates and ghost towns. Prize winner at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.
- Director
- Julia Murat
- Countries of production
- Brazil, Argentina, France
- Year
- 2011
- Festival Edition
- IFFR 2012
- Length
- 98'
- Medium
- 35mm
- International title
- STORIES Only Exist When Remembered
- Language
- Portuguese
- Producers
- Julia Murat, Lucia Murat, Juliette Lepoutre, Marie-Pierre Macia
- Production Companies
- Taiga Filmes e Video, MPM Film (Movie Partners in Motion)
- Sales
- MPM Film (Movie Partners in Motion)
- Screenplay
- Maria Clara Escobar, Felipe Sholl, Julia Murat
- Cinematography
- Lucio Bonelli
- Editor
- Marina Meliande
- Sound Design
- Facundo Giron
- Music
- Lucas Marcier
- Cast
- Lisa Fávero, Sonia Guedes
- Local Distributor
- EYE Film Institute Netherlands
- Website
- http://www.mpmfilm.com/historias/