Lobo e cão

Cláudia Varejão plays poignantly with the notion of sanctuary in WOLF AND DOG, her first fiction feature, As she already proved in AMA-SAN (2016), Varejão has an uncanny gift for immersive, sensuous storytelling, and for capturing the beauty of marine environments. Now this beauty returns in the setting of São Miguel Island, where tourists admire whales in their natural habitat, and the landscape is unwaveringly enchanting. But Varejão also pulls back to reveal a parallel, more complex human habitat: sanctuary is much harder to find for the island’s beautiful and intrepid LGBTQ youth. Oppressed by their pious fisherman community, Ana and Luis, the two young protagonists, must find a tribe of their own to flourish.
Varejão’s film is remarkable in its delicate modulations: tenderness is tainted by threats of violence; the sanctuary as a place of preservation is also the perilous and financially hardscrabble world of fishermen struggling to make a living. Rui Xavem’s cinematography transports us into reveries only to always return to the earthy particulars of coastal life. With particular attention to nurture and motherhood, as well as nuanced storytelling, WOLF AND DOG explores the tensions between a desire for liberation and powerful familial bonds. (Ela Bittencourt)

In the presence of Ana Cabral.

Cláudia Varejão: Filmografie FALTA-ME (2004, K), FIM-DE-SEMANA (2007, K), LUZ DA MANHÃ (2011, K), NO ESCURO DO CINEMA DESCALÇO OS SAPATOS (2016), AMA-SAN (2016), AMOR FATI (2020), O OFÍCIO DA ILUSÃO (2020, K)