Alma Viva, the first feature film by Franco-Portuguese director Cristèle Alves Meira, was released in cinemas on Wednesday April 12 in France. A family fresco for a summer, in a village in the mountains of north-eastern Portugal, where a 9-year-old girl from France is spending her holidays alongside her beloved grandmother. A story of transmission tinged with superstitions.
Alma Viva is a burlesque and tragic fable, which mixes rural western and chronicle of summer holidays. Nine-year-old Salomé spends the summer at the house of her dear grandmother, a free woman who many consider to be a witch. In this remote village crushed by heat, all the landscapes, the characters, the situations are filmed at the height of a child.
The director, Cristèle Alves Meira, wanted to resurrect Portugal from its roots, a country of spirits and beliefs: “ I grew up in a family where women believe in the power of plants, she explains at the microphoneIsabelle Chenu of the Culture Department. I have always seen my grandmother practice somewhat pagan rituals. But there was always this connection with the spirits. As a kid, I heard lots of stories. Neighborhood wars over bad luck, that sort of thing… »
His film is a tribute to the vibrant origins of magical realism. It is about mourning, family dispute around a coffin, but also about transmission: ” It is above all a portrait of women of three generations, women who emancipate themselves from an environment, small villages in the land, the mountains with a little more archaic mentalities… »
The director recounts a place and a heritage, with her own daughter, Lua Michel, as the main performer, and non-professional actors who give the film a lot of truth.