As estações

For her first feature as a solo director—following DIÁRIOS DE OTSOGA (2021), co-directed with her partner Miguel Gomes— French filmmaker Maureen Fazendeiro was inspired by archeologist couple Georg and Vera Leisner’s efforts to catalogue the Alentejo region of Portugal. Part documentary, part fable, AS ESTAÇÕES unfolds like a weatherworn letter, employing a motley set of techniques to embody the region’s varied textures and characters. Fazendeiro lovingly traces the region’s histories through archival footage, scientific illustrations, poetry, tableaux vivants and pure fabrication inspired by local legend. The result is a non-hierarchical imagining of southern Portugal, with coruscating images shot on 16mm by Robin Fresson and Marta Simões. AS ESTAÇÕES pans across pastoral landscapes, grazing debarked trees, herds of goats, rotting fruit, and a family performing Communist folk songs. As with Fazendeiro’s previous projects (including this year’s LES HABITANTS, also screening at the festival), ethnography and conscientious mythmaking go arm in arm, or branch in branch. (Saffron Maeve)

In the presence of Maureen Fazendeiro.

Maureen Fazendeiro: MOTU MAEVA (2014), SOL NEGRO (2019, K), DIÁRIOS DE OTSOGA (2021, CO-DIRECTOR), LES HABITANTS (2025)