Transamazonia
Pia Marais | France, Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan, Brazil | 2024 | 112'
IN COLLABORATION WITH
Screenings
Sun 30 March H 20:00
Section
Original title
Transamazonia
Synopsis
In a lush Amazon forest, an injured girl is the sole survivor of a plane crash. Nine years later, we find her with her father, a charismatic American preacher who exalts the magical powers of his daughter, called Miss Aspirin by the indigenous people. It is a visually powerful film suspended between reality and mysticism, which plunges us into the heart of the jungle between miracles, deceptions and violent clashes between the indigenous people and the illegal lumberjacks.
Cast
Helena Zengel, Jeremy Xido, Sabine Timoteo, Hamã Luciano, Rômulo Braga
Films Distribution
I Wonder
Production
Gaïjin, Cinéma Defacto, Aldabra Films
Editing
Pia Marais, Willem Drost, Martin Rosefeldt
Cinematography
Mathieu de Montgrand
Editing
Matthieu Laclau, Yann-Shan Tsai
Language
English, Portuguese
Subtitles
Italian, English
Premiere
Closing film - Italian Première, in collaboration with Fondazione Prada and I Wonder
Main awards
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Biography
Pia Marais was born in South Africa in 1971. She studied sculpture and photography at art academies in London, Amsterdam, and Düsseldorf. After the short films Tricky People (1999) and Seventeen (2002), her feature debut, The Unpolished, won the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2007 and the German Film Critics Association’s Best Debut Award. At Ellen’s Age screened in Competition in Locarno in 2010, and in more than 30 festivals, including Toronto. Layla Fourie was set in her home country, South Africa, and premiered in Competition at the 2013 Berlinale, receiving a Special Jury Mention. In 2018, she made her first documentary Cari Compagni for Arte. In 2024 Pia returned in Locarno International Competition with Transamazonia, her fourth feature film. She is President of the Feature Film Competition Jury of FESCAAAL 2025.
Filmography
2024 - Transamazonia, ff
2018 - Cari Compagni, sf
2013 - Layla Fourie, ff
2010 - At Ellen's Age, ff
2007 - The Unpolished, ff