The first feature film by director Marta Mateus, “Fogo do Vento”, is full of magical thoughts and at the same time very precise in its anthropological scope. It demands a lot from the cinema.
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The film took over four years to complete, but it lacks neither ambition nor sense of brevity; it clocks in at just 70 minutes. Both qualities lend the film a certain intensity and focus.
When Variety spoke to Mateus at the Locarno Film Festival, where this enchanting debut is making its main competition premiere, she was quick to emphasize that she sees her work as a filmmaker as “a kind of atelier.” The film itself feels more like a carefully crafted art object than anything else, which only reinforces Mateus’s point.
The stillness of the camera in the film helps create this sense of craftsmanship in every shot. "Once a filmmaker said to me, 'Oh, you made that movie where people never move.' What was he talking about? Then I understood that maybe he had this feeling, since it's actually the camera that almost never moves."
