For precocious and bright-eyed Salomé (Lua Michel), her grandmother, Avo (Ester Catalao), is magic. In Alma Viva, the French-born younger woman spends her summers underneath the muggy warmth of her household’s Portuguese village, the place she tends to her beloved Avo, who is thought on the town because the village sorceress. Although her aunt and uncle buzz round them within the background, Avo is the middle of Salomé’s world. She tends to her grandmother, brushing her hair, bringing her fish, and praying at her facet as she calls on spirits and communicates with the useless.
Although director Cristele Alves Meira’s setting is in a small mountainous village, by means of Salomé’s eyes, the environment turn out to be huge and beguiling. The little woman doesn’t fairly perceive the rumors that swirl round her household, particularly her grandmother, however she has no qualms about sticking up for Avo utilizing feisty phrases, a stern look, and typically even one thing a bit extra sinister. Fearless and decided, Salomé could also be small, however the viewers is aware of she will not be one to be trifled with from the second the movie opens.
Avo’s dying adjustments all the pieces in ‘Alma Viva’
Simply as Meira grounds her viewers into Salomé’s leisurely summer time days, which embody twerking periods with Avo, fishing journeys, and listening in on grownup conversations, Avo dies, throwing Salomé’s household and the city surrounding them into upheaval.
As Avo’s major caregiver, Salomé’s aunt Fatima summons her siblings residence. The younger woman’s mom, Aida (Jaqueline Corado), arrives from France shortly thereafter, so overcome with grief that she faints upon seeing her mom’s corpse. From there, chaos ensues. Aida, Fatima, and the remainder of the siblings start to battle over Avo’s meager inheritance and a rich brother who refuses to indicate his face for the funeral. The arguments and tensions delay Avo’s burial, which causes the village residents to additionally flip towards the household. Avo’s physique — and due to this fact her spirit stays amongst the residing, bringing forth whispers of a curse and rumors of Avo’s salacious status.
Salomé bearing witness to the chaos and decided to attach with Avo as soon as once more shuns the steerage of the adults surrounding her and begins to take issues into her personal arms. Meira leaves a lot of what occurs subsequent as much as the viewers’s interpretation. Salomé, both by means of her personal resolve or in any other case, begins to embody Avo or host her spirit, wreaking havoc on all of these she has perceived had wronged her grandmother. Typically, youngsters aren’t depicted with such intelligibility in movie; nonetheless, although Salomé could not fully perceive her grief, she does perceive she has the ability to do one thing about it.
Cristele Alves Meira solid her daughter within the position of Salomé
Lushly filmed and fantastically written, Meira made the good alternative of casting Michel, her personal daughter, within the position of Salomé. The younger actress’ debut is positively splendid. She is participating, witty, tenacious, and compelling, conveying her feelings with nothing greater than a grief-stricken cry or a hardened shove.
Although there are particular magical parts within the movie, Meira retains her narrative firmly grounded in Salomé’s actuality and the household’s traditions. The younger woman is allowed to flourish even when her confusion, anger, and grief push her ahead within the days following Avo’s dying. A profoundly feminist and richly carried out movie, Alma Viva examines the fallout following the dying of a household’s matriarch and the way one embolden little woman presses towards a patriarchal society and decides to take care of it. As Salomé’s uncle says towards the top of the movie, “Sooner or later, all independent women are labeled witches.”
Alma Viva was screened on the Cannes Movie Pageant on Might 19, 2022, as part of Unifrance’s Inaugural Critics Lab.