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Lusophone Film Festival "The Second Mother" (Que Horas Ela Volta?)

Thursday, September 24, 2015
12:00 AM
State Theater, 233 South State Street, Ann Arbor, MI

Directed by Anna Muylaert (Brazil, 2015) 111min
Introduction by Professor Sueann Caufield (University of Michigan)

Val is a housekeeper working for a rich family in São Paulo. She has been washing, cooking and cleaning for what seems like an eternity. She is also a caring confidante of 17-year-old Fabinho, whose mother never seems to have any time for him. Val left her own daughter Jéssica back at home far away in the Brazilian Northeast; the pair has not seen each other for over ten years. All of a sudden the girl announces her arrival. Now a self-confident young woman, she intends to study architecture in São Paulo and refuses to calmly accept the rules that exist between master and servant. Instead of sharing her mother’s humble room, she moves into the spacious guest bedroom. She helps herself to anything she fancies from the fridge and even frolics about in the pool with Fabinho and his friends. Bit by bit the once unshakable rules of the house begin to disintegrate, much against Val's will. And then, in the midst of an argument between mother and daughter, Jéssica’s well-kept secret comes to light... (Berlinale). Actors Regina Casé and Camila Mardila won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Co-sponsored by: Brazil Initiative / Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies • LSA • International Institute • African Studies Center • Department of Afro-American and African Studies • Institute for the Humanities • Department of Romance Languages and Literatures • Sheldon Cohn Fund / Department of Screen Arts and Cultures • Center for European Studies.

For more information about the Lusophone Film Festival.