Febre da Madeira

What was that anyway? I'm still trying to figure out even after some subsequent views and I couldn't form a concept of the whole, and neither the director explains in the video description what it's all about except for saying that this is a story about being "Life and death in the interior of Goiás", more precisely the town of Catalão where his family lives and some of its members appear in the movie. "Febre da Madeira" ("Wood Sickness") is a short documentary that allows viewers to get a glimpse in the daily routine of a small farm, its habitants and workers, the rural habits, animals and they all work together in an environment of melancholy, sadness, quietude. It is what it is and nothing more.

And there are so many moments where you wait for something drastic to happen but they never do. But the director is wise in putting together his static long shots together, without moving the camera, capturing everything with a great sense of beauty and there's some images that haunt you for a while since it takes some time to figure out what's going on (like the long white cloth stretched on the muddy ground which at first glance one can imagine it's an animal carcass until one man moves it from the ground) and others because there's no explanation at all (the haunting image of a big cat's head on a rooftop. Spooky). And I keep wondering if there's actually a more meaningful message to it or it's just the director wanting us to present the life of his relatives and how they conduct their lives, a far reality from most film audiences, I think. And something tells me that there's something hidden there of which I failed to grasp. I still find it a cool project, mysterious and never boring despite its slowness.

The music on the closing credits is a completely random plot twist but I loved it, I'm a big fan anyway. Yet still wondering what's this was all about and why they had that song in particular played at the end. Maybe it's a way the director had to describe himself. 6/10.