Vazante

The year is 1821 and Brazil is on the verge of independence. Antonio, a drover, returns to the imposing but decadent estate he married into, to find out that his wife has died in labor. Forced to live in this desolate property in the company of his demented mother-in-law and a group of slaves, he marries his dead wife’s niece, a child of 12. 

Daniela Thomas’s first solo film is shot in impressively composed, atmospheric black-and-white images. The Walter Salles collaborator explores transitional race and gender relations sixty years before the end of slavery.