Paris-based sales agency Celluloid Dreams has premiered the trailer for the Brazilian film Memory House / Casa de Antiguidades, the debut feature by João Paulo Miranda, which was the only Latin American film unveiled under this year’s Cannes Official Selection Label. The Brazilian filmmaker uses spiritual and fantastical storytelling to encapsulate the social and racial tensions of modern day Brazil.
The film follows Cristovam, a native black man from the rural North who moves to a former Austrian colony in the South to work in a milk factory. Confronted with xenophobic conservative people, he feels isolated and estranged from the white world. He discovers an abandoned house, filled with objects and memorabilia reminding him of his origins. He settles in, reconnecting with his roots. As if this memory house were alive, more objects start to appear. Slowly, Cristovam begins a metamorphosis.
Born in the state of São Paulo in 1982, Miranda graduated with a degree in cinema in 2004 from Estacio de Sá College in Rio de Janeiro. He holds a Master’s degree in Multimedia from the University of Campinas. A Professor at the Methodist University of Piracicaba (SP), he is also a member of the Brazilian Association of Cinematography and the founder and coordinator of the research and film practice group Kino-olho. Miranda had previously participated at Cannes with two short films: Command Action (2015) in the Critics’ Week, and one year later The Girl Who Danced With the Devil, which won Special Mention in the official short film competition.
Watch the trailer for Memory House:
