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IFFR 2018 Portugal

Terratreme: Ten years and five titles at Rotterdam

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- Terratreme’s production Djon África is one of the eight features taking part in the Hivos Tiger Competition

Terratreme: Ten years and five titles at Rotterdam
Djon África by Filipa Reis and João Miller Guerra

In 2018, Portuguese production company Terratreme Filmes celebrates ten years of activity, a period during which a group of filmmakers and producers struggled to impose their auteur-driven vision both locally and at international festivals – and they have certainly succeeded. The anniversary year kicks off with two pieces of good news: the opening of an exhibition of the company’s best film posters of the last decade in Lisbon, and the selection of five of their most recent productions at the imminent International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR, 24 January–4 February).

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The IFFR’s Hivos Tiger Competition is screening Djon África [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, a co-production with Brazil and Cape Verde, directed by duo Filipa Reis and João Miller Guerra, who also serve as co-producers through their Lisbon-based outfit Uma Pedra no Sapato. The film centres on young African Miguel Moreira, also known as Djon África, who is in search of his roots and his father. He has two identities that are simultaneously in conflict and in harmony: living in a Portuguese ghetto, he wonders what being an African actually is without really being one.

The script of Djon África was written by director Miller Guerra along with Pedro Pinho, one of Terratreme’s founders, who is also presenting his critically acclaimed feature The Nothing Factory [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pedro Pinho
film profile
]
in the IFFR’s Bright Future section.

Also selected for the Bright Future section is Susana Nobre’s new film Ordinary Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, an in-depth look at a period of maternity leave, starring Marta Lança as a real-life young mother who is visited by friends and relatives. The film portrays a series of intimate dialogues about marriage, children, work and inevitable expectations for the future.

Terratreme’s line-up at Rotterdam is rounded off by Valérie Massadian’s French-Portuguese title Milla [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
– which was awarded at the latest DocLisboa – and Leonor Noivo’s short All I Imagine.

As for the remainder of the Portuguese contingent at the Dutch gathering, the list includes João Canijo’s all-female pilgrimage film Fátima [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, Teresa Villaverde’s documentary Galileo’s Thermometer [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
and the Portuguese co-productions Sunstone by Louis Henderson and Filipa César, The Captain [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Robert Schwentke
film profile
]
by Robert Schwentke and Zama [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucrecia Martel
film profile
]
by Lucrecia Martel.

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