Photo ©️ FICG / Diego Gasca
Os demónios do meu avô, the first Portuguese feature film made with the stop motion technique, was screened as a presentation of Portuguese cinema, which arrives at the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG) as Guest of Honor.
The feature film, directed by Nuno Beato and made in collaboration with Spain and France, develops a profound story that seeks to captivate both children and adults, while showing the possibilities of creating a beautiful fantasy plot by mixing elements of Portugal's own artisanal talent.
The film tells the story of Rosa, who decides to leave the city after learning of the death of her grandfather, with whom she has not spoken in a long time. Arriving at the isolated property in the middle of the Trás-os-Montes landscape, she finds the land and the house in ruins and, driven by remorse, memories and the need to find a new direction, she tries to rebuild the house and the fields.
But Rosa is not alone, because a group of clay figures made by her grandfather will come to life, advising and guiding her just as her grandfather would do... and soon the protagonist will realize that her grandfather's "demons" are still in her town, in the house and, possibly, inside her.
Os demónios do meu avô begins with a 2D animation with cold colors, closed spaces and routines of today's world where the viewer feels disconnected from the characters, their lives and their problems.
However, little by little a transition is made to the stop-motion style, and the reason for this, explained Nuno Beato in the talk after the screening at FICG, has to do with the growth of the characters and their journey, where the past of the grandfather and the present of Rosa are intertwined, from the moment in which the death of the grandfather happens to the moment in which she has to deal with all the "demons" he left behind.
"I believe that the past serves to look to the future," reflected Nuno, "I don't like living in the past very much, because there are many people who like to live in the past and don't get to live the future or the present, but you have to understand that."
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Photo ©️ FICG / Diego Gasca
The "demons" that we find in the film, created by the grandfather with clay, are based on the handicrafts of Rosa Ramalho, who also gives her name to the protagonist. They represent each of the characters we meet, almost always people with whom the grandfather had problems and who are even part of Rosa's life; even "fixing the grandfather's past" is a phrase, goal and driving force of the story.
The film is full of human connections that develop throughout the journey of the characters, reflected even in the spaces they inhabit. Nuno shared that none of the sets were made perfectly, and the times it happened, he proposed to redo them in a more disorganized way.
The production cost 3 million euros to produce and almost 400 kg of clay were used for houses, landscapes and small details of the characters, such as masks, rooms and demons.
Nuno Beato invited the FICG public to visit the exhibition "Os demónios do meu avô", where figures of the characters, original sets, sequences of the film are exhibited together with the exhibition of the first Mexican feature film made entirely in stop motion, Soy Frankelda, at the Museum of Environmental Sciences, where both will remain until the final day of the 40th edition of the Festival (June 14).