Bando
Brazil / AL
During the festival of the Patron Saint of a Village, a family receives relatives who are fleeing the city’s violence. The discovery of the past between the town and the foreigners soon gives way to strange things that begin to happen: a pestilence in tobacco crops that hasn’t happened in years; dead bodies found in the middle of the flowerbeds; police and drones that invade the Village. All of this is mixed with prayers, rituals and masked invasions that become picturesque in the eyes of outsiders.
Production Company
Filmes de Bananola
Like many other cities in the interior of Brazil, Arapiraca had its cinemas closed in the 1980s, following the phenomenon of extinction of neighborhood cinemas across the country. An entire generation of film buffs grew up learning about films through alternative channels such as video stores and the internet. However, the absence of an exhibition circuit did not prevent audiovisual directors from emerging in the municipality, as is the case of Leandro Alves and Wagno Godez, authors of films that won awards at several national festivals. The federal government’s regionalization policies, such as the FSA’s Regional Arrangements line, have made it possible for filmmakers who live in interior cities to be inserted into the audiovisual production chain. This is how Filmes de Bananola was born, a production company that was born from the desire to make films in Arapiraca, talking about Arapiraca and which seeks to produce the first feature-length fiction film made in the countryside of Alagoas. The aforementioned producer contributes an important part to consolidating this scene. It is co-producing Movimento Perpétuo, currently in the pre-production phase, and producing the telefilm Os Romeiros de Coutinho, both by Leandro Alves, which will be made in Arapiraca, and which were approved in public notices in partnership with Ancine, in addition to the short films, Guia, by Tarcísio Ferreira, Nós two by Leandro Alves and Wéllima Kelly and other audiovisual projects in partnership with NAVI – Núcleo do Audiovisual de Arapiraca and the production company Arte Camaleão, as is the case of the Arapiraca Film Festival and Estação NAVI, which are audiovisual training courses in the interior of Alagoas. Filmes de Bananola represents an essential step towards representing rural cinema, made in the interior of the Northeast, built from the identity of the local culture. And within this trajectory, creating fictional and fantastic narratives, mixing and exploring local identity and everyday experiences. Bando contributes powerfully to this construction.