Carlos Lenin’s The Dove and the Wolf
The Locarno Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 72nd edition, which includes two Latin American films in the main competition for the Golden Leopard award: the Brazilian film The Fever / A Febre, the debut feature by Maya Werneck Da-Rin, and the Argentine-Italian film Maternal, the debut feature by Maura Delpero.
The Fever is set In Manaus, an industrial city surrounded by the Amazon rainforest, the New Year’s Eve is drawing closer and the heavy rains of December give no respite. Justino, a 45 years old indigenous man, works as a security guard at a cargo port and lives in a small house on the outskirts of town. Since the death of his wife, his only company has been his youngest daughter Vanessa, but she will be leaving soon to study medicine in Brasília.
Maternal follows Sister Paola, who has just arrived to Buenos Aires from Italy to finish her novitiate and take her final votes at the Hogar, an Italian religious centre for teen mums in Buenos. Once there, she will face a world she wouldn't expected. Lu and Fati, both 17, are children abruptly converted into mothers. Fati is a shy girl living in the shadow of a difficult past. Lu is hot-headed and wants to join the violent boy she likes. One night Lu, in her intimate dilemma between the love for her child Nina and the attraction for her boyfriend, will escape the Hogar, "abandoning" Nina. While Lu's away, Sister Paola is given the custody of Nina, living kind of a short maternity that will arouse deep doubts in her heart about her life and her monastic path. When Lu finally comes back, they both have to face the consequences of their actions and deal with a new consciousness of their maternity.
Carlos Lenin’s The Dove and the Wolf / La Paloma y el Lobo will be the only Latin American entry in the Cineasti del Presente competition. Displaced by the violence that devastated their town, Paloma and Lobo survive trying to love each other. Between thirst, fear and nostalgia, Paloma wishes to return home but Lobo lives tied to a memory that prevents her from returning.
And lastly, the Brazilian short films Flesh / Carne by Camila Kater and A Street Under / Chão de Rua by Tomás von der Osten, and the Cuban short The Furniture Maker / El hacedor de muebles by David Avilés will participate in the Pardi di Domani competition, while the Brazilian short Swinguerra by Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca will premiere in the Moving Ahead section of the festival.
The 72nd edition of the Locarno Film Festival will take place August 7 - 17 in Switzerland.
