Daniela Thomas’s black-and-white tragedy Vazante is the opening night selection for Brown’s weekend-long CineBrasil festival, featuring five recent titles that you probably wouldn’t get a chance to otherwise see. Shot among the craggy Diamantina Mountains, the film is set in 1821, the year before Brazil got its independence from Portugal. Grieving over his wife’s death, slave owner Antonio (Adriano Carvalho) marries her impoverished twelve-year old niece (Luana Nastas), then leaves her with all the slaves while he heads back to work. Thomas has emphasized in interviews how careful she was to avoid gratuitous, voyeuristic violence against the film’s slaves and women.
Vazante
