Maria de Medeiros created a surprise in 1999 with April Captains on the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal. Recognized internationally, the director has not yet seen all of her films distributed in France. She returns to our screens on Wednesday February 23 with To our childrenon the decision of a lesbian couple to practice a PMA (medically assisted procreation).
In Rio de Janeiro, Tania and Vanessa love each other and have tried PMA several times, without result. Tania’s mother, Vera, who fought against the Brazilian dictatorship, takes care of HIV-positive orphans, and does not understand their relentless desire to procreate, while so many children find themselves without parents. Their repetitive failures lead Tania and Vanessa to reverse their role as surrogate mother, while their feelings are dulled.
Maria de Medeiros’ heart swings between Portugal and Brazil. His filmography moves from one country to another, both intertwined in their history and language. Located on the heights of Rio, To our children enters the intimacy of a love, of a desire for a child and of the disintegration of feelings, while the realization of a long-awaited happiness comes to the fore.
This paradox that Tania and Vanessa live has in the background Vera, mother of Tania, veteran of the anti-fascist struggle during the time of the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964-85). His progressive message is like the grain of sand that will interfere between his daughter and his partner. Maria de Medeiros adapts the play by Laura Castro (who interprets the role of Tania in the film) in which she played herself. Unlike the film, the play was a dialogue between mother and daughter. The director multiplies the characters and brings cinematography to the play.
However, despite these efforts, To our children remains quite static, with sometimes a certain repetition, on the failures of the PMA, the dialogues between Tania and Vanessa or the positions taken by Vera. The film goes a little in circles, with a development of the characters which arrives later. Sensitive however in its characters, its text and its interpretation, in particular of Marieta Severo (Vera), To our children calls out by its little discussed and topical subject.
/2022/02/21/phpprno1O.jpg)
Kind : Drama
Director: Maria de Medeiros
Duration : 1h47
Country : Brazil
Exit : February 23, 2022
Distributer : Epicenter movies
Summary: Vera, who fought against the dictatorship in the 1970s, now takes care of an orphanage for HIV-positive children in Rio. His daughter, Tania, has been trying for several months, with her partner, Vanessa, to have a child by PMA. Between them, a gap has widened…