The first film of this year's festival will start at the Ponrepo cinema. That is why we have also prepared an interview for you with the curator of the National Film Archive, Klára Trsková, who is close to the culture and art of the Portuguese speaking countries. Read why you shouldn't miss Barren Lives and how Klára got into Portuguese language and film.
[Barbora] The 11th edition of the Kino Brasil film festival will start this year for the first time at the Ponrepo cinema. Audience can watch the Brazilian film Barren Lives there. Are you excited that the festival will start at Ponrepo and with this iconic film this year?
[Klára] Yes, we at Ponrepo are very happy that this year we will also be able to get Brazilian archive films stored in the collection of the National Film Archive in Prague to the viewers of Kino Brasil. In addition, it will be a classic film projection from a 35mm film strip, and it has its unique charm!
[Barbora] What do you see as the quality of the film, why should people watch it?
[Klára] The film Barren Lives tells the story of the escape of one family from the northeast of Brazil from crop failure and famine, which repeatedly plagued this part of the country due to prolonged drought. The literary masterpiece from the pen of Graciliano Ramos from 1938 belongs to the Brazilian literary canon. When Nelson Pereira dos Santos made the novel into a film in 1963, his film became one of the works that helped shape the aesthetics of the Brazilian cinematic new wave (so-called Cinema Novo). For Brazilian cinema, director Nelson Pereira dos Santos is as important a personality as Věra Chytilová or Miloš Forman are for Czech cinema. Although drought and famine are not easy subjects, this is a very visually impressive film that raises many questions.
[Barbora] You like to offer Brazilian films to the audience, this year you are screening the second film in the Ponrepo cinema in cooperation with Kino Brasil. Why Brazilian films?
[Klára] We have long-term friendly ties with the Brazilian Cinematheque in São Paulo (which is the Brazilian equivalent of our film archive in Prague). We try to help each other in organizing film screenings in both countries or in the digital restoration of archive films. Curator Marie Barešová presented several Czechoslovak films to the Brazilian audience in São Paulo last year and was inspired to screen the film Portraits of Ghosts (2023) about defunct Brazilian cinemas, which the audience could already watch at the Ponrepo cinema. There will be an opportunity to do this again as part of the Kino Brasil festival on 11/1 from 18:00 in Bio Oko.
[Barbora] In the video invitation you made for Kino Brasil, you speak fluent Portuguese. One can see that you are close to the language. So your interest is primarily in Brazilian films, or in general Portuguese-speaking films from other countries as well?
[Klára] The culture and art of Portuguese-speaking countries is close to me and I like to introduce it to the Czech audience. I mainly focus on Portuguese speaking African countries, which are Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe. I present films from these countries every year in Ponrepo during the AfroFilmes festival. Next year, among them will be works related to the Brazilian African diaspora, so at the end of February (21-24/02/2025), fans of Brazilian cinema can look forward to another experience!
[Barbora] Where did you learn the language?
[Klára] I didn't learn Portuguese well at all in the beginning. Attending evening language courses at the Instituto Camões Portuguese Center helped me a lot, but I improved the most during the Erasmus year at the University of Coimbra, where I lived in the "student republic" SOREA. I had to learn the language there quickly in order to be able to participate in the daily functioning of our community house.
[Barbora] And how did you get into film after studying Portuguese studies?
[Klára] In addition to Portuguese studies and Lusobrazilian studies, I also studied at the Faculty of Film Studies at the Center for Audiovisual Studies at FAMU. Now I try to combine the theoretical and practical part of all my fields.
[Barbora] Everything finally fell into place for me. Finally, I would like to know if you are going to any other Kino Brasil events? What are you most looking forward to?
[Klára] My capoeira group will be holding a "circle" at the opening ceremony of Kino Brasil. I'm still a complete beginner, but I'm looking forward to how it will look in the cinema environment! If you are interested in capoeira, you can come to one of the Axé capoeira training sessions in Holešovice during the festival. Among the film performances, I was very interested in the film Betânia, and then I will definitely not miss Portrait of a Certain Orient, because I like the novels of Milton Hatoum, who is the author of the literary source material.
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See the full festival's programme here.