Please join us for our Interdisciplinary Film Festival in Olin 105!  We will have snacks and a faculty-led discussion after the film.

All films have English subtitles.

Viajo porque preciso, volto porque te amo                                                

From:   Brazil

Thursday, September 25th, 7:00 pm

 

In this hauntingly melancholy film, geologist José Renato, travels to Sertão, an isolated region in Northeastern Brazil. His goal is to assess possible routes for a water canal from the region’s only river. For many of the region’s inhabitants, the canal will be a lifeline, the chance of a future and source of hope. But for those living on the canal’s direct course, it means only requisitions, departure and loss. As the journey progresses through impressionistic landscapes, we sense that José Renato has something in common with the places he visits: emptiness, a sense of isolation. Little by little we discover that he too has been abandoned in his life. The desolation of the surroundings seems to echo in José Renato, making the trip increasingly difficult. His geological research is slowly pervaded by a sensation of groundlessness, an incessant pining for his ex-wife and a yearning to go home. But he decides to press ahead, to continue the trip, in the hope that the crossing can somehow transmute his feelings. Like an astronaut who has travelled in outer space, or a sailor who has crossed the oceans, for José Renato, nothing will ever be the same again.