To the Left of the Father

Plot summary

The story concerns a young man, André (Selton Mello), whose ideas are radically different from his father's (Raul Cortez). The father predicates order and restraint, which enhance his own power under the mantle of family love. The son seeks freedom and ecstasy, challengingly signified, in the film, through his incestuous passion for his sister Ana (Simone Spoladore). When the son leaves home on the farm and moves to a seedy boarding house, his older brother Pedro (Leonardo Medeiros), is asked by their mother (Juliana Carneiro da Cunha) to bring him back. His return, however, will completely shatter the family's confining life.

Cast

Production

Aiming to maintain the connection with the poetic prose of Raduan Nassar's book, Luiz Fernando Carvalho elected to film without a defined script, based entirely on the actors' improvisations on the theme. This involved intensive coaching of the cast, secluded on a farm for four months. The film's creation and production process was discussed in the book About To the Left of The Father ("Sobre Lavoura Arcaica"), in which the director is interviewed by José Carlos Avellar, Geraldo Sarno, Miguel Pereira, Ivana Bentes, Arnaldo Carrilho and Liliane Heynemann, launched in Portuguese, English and French by the publisher Ateliê Editorial.

Reception

It was success with the critics and the public, reaching 300 thousand viewers with just two copies, one in Rio de Janeiro and the other in São Paulo.

Critical response

It is considered one of the 100 best brazilian films of all times, according to the Brazilian Film Critics Association (Abraccine). In the opinion of writer and psychoanalyst Renato Tardivo, author of Porvir que vem antes de tudo – literatura e cinema em Lavoura Arcaica, the film is one of the most important works of Brazilian cinema "of all times". The critic Carlos Alberto de Mattos described it as the first work of art of the Brazilian cinema in the 21st century. The film was acclaimed by the critics of various countries and, according to the French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, To the Left of the Father is a "barbarous poem verging on hallucination, of extraordinary power".

Accolades

It had a successful career in a number of national and international festivals, receiving over 50 awards at the Montreal World Film Festival, the Rio Film Festival, the São Paulo International Film Festival, the Grand Prix for Brazilian Film, the Brasília Film Festival, the Havana Film Festival, the Cartagena Film Festival, the Guadalajara International Film Festival, the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, among others.