Baronesa

In the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, favelas are given female names. Director Juliana Antunes and her almost entirely female crew settle in a neighbourhood called “Juliana” to film two friends, Leidiane and Andreia, just when Andreia is about to leave Juliana and move to the neighbouring slum called “Baronesa”. In what is by no means a sociological project, Juliana Antunes shows favelas as we seldom get to see them: from the women’s point of view, in the backyards of makeshift homes, only a few low walls or metal sheets away from a gang warfare that is never shown, but whose violence pervades the main characters’ daily lives and fates. From the absolute starkness of the setting, to the apparent simplicity of the frames, directing and editing – without forgoing the usual tools of fiction – everything is discretely and subtly made to let the characters speak freely. Drugs, violence, sex, love, friendship, death, all kinds of topics are raised. As the film unfolds, moments of not so trivial chatting alternate with deeply touching confessions, ellipses reveal the violence of lives we get to catch glimpses of, at the risk of stray bullets, and Andreia and Leidina’s rough beauty comes to light. Big shots aren’t always who they seem to be… Here, men are little boys, while female characters are given considerably more depth and layers than is usually the case in films, through a cinematographic treatment that is much more complex than it looks at first glance. (CG)