Represa

After his mother’s death, Lucas drives from São Paulo to Northeast Brazil to sell a stretch of land that belonged to her. To do this, he has to get the consent of Robson, an indigenous half-brother he has never met. He keeps a low profile at his destination, presenting himself as a tourist in this dusty town ravaged in the name of development. But Josy, his adolescent niece, senses that Lucas has other motivations for his visit.

Diego Hoefel’s debut feature Represa is a delicate, metaphorical exploration of the fraught links between land rights and the patriarchal family. The film unfolds entirely from the perspective of the unkempt and casually dressed Lucas, whose bleeding heart is contrasted with the acquisitive aggression of his lawyer and his father. Robson’s own decisions bear down on Josy, who seeks solace among a marginalised young community outside the town.

The unspoken tensions shaping the drama find an echo in the spare, rocky landscape of the town and its environs. Built from nothing after the old town was submerged by the waters of a reservoir, it is a place without a future, chained down by the past, like the characters themselves. As Lucas, Robson and Josy begin seeing eye to eye, Hoefel’s film develops into a hopeful vision for the multi-ethnic nation.

– Srikanth Srinivasan