Screened as part of NZIFF 2019

Florianópolis Dream 2018

Sueño Florianópolis

Directed by Ana Katz

Argentinian actor-turned-director Ana Katz helms this Brazilian family holiday comedy that strikes deeper chords in its exploration of independence, marriage and aging, at a beach paradise.

Argentina / Brazil / France In Portuguese and Spanish with English subtitles
107 minutes DCP

Rent

Director

Producers

Nicolás Avruj
,
Diego Lerman
,
Camila Groch
,
Beto Gauss
,
Ana Katz
,
Francesco Civita

Screenplay

Daniel Katz
,
Ana Katz

Photography

Gustavo Biazzi

Editor

Andrés Tambornino

Production designer

Gonzalo Delgado

Costume designers

Sandra Fink
,
Diogo Costa

Music

Maximiliano Silveira
,
Érico Theobaldo
,
Beto Villares
,
Arthur de Faria

With

Mercedes Morán (Lucrecia)
,
Gustavo Garzón (Pedro)
,
Andréa Beltrão (Larisa)
,
Marco Ricca (Marco)
,
Manuela Martinez (Flor)
,
Joaquín Garzón (Julián)
,
Caio Horowicz (César)

Festivals

Toronto, London 2018

Elsewhere

Set in the 1990s in Florianópolis, a famed holiday destination in southern Brazil, Ana Katz’s film is awash with glorious summer light, subtropical greens and white gold sand. Enter a chaotic Argentinian family of four in a clapped-out car that immediately runs out of petrol. The disorganisation, much of it stemming from skinflintery, continues. The family finds a beach bungalow thanks to Marco, a friendly local guy-on-the-make who spends much of the film in a tank top and Speedos.

As on many a family holiday, while relaxation and quality time are ostensibly the name of the game, rivers of tension run deep. Lucrecia and Pedro are recently separated, nostalgic psychoanalysts with restless teenage kids. Everyone is searching for a sense of independence. They talk it out, joyfully chase each other with flapping fish, and ride on a giant inflatable sausage-like raft. Featuring romantic dalliances and excellent beach wear (glimpses of mesh, broad zippers!), Florianópolis Dream is a gentle exploration of the way families come together and push apart, with deceptively simple observations that illuminate the female experience – experiences that actor-turned-director Katz has a sharp, unerring sense for.