An encounter between the entity Curupira, a queer devil who protects the forests of Brazil, and the incarnated ghost of Iracema, a fourteen-year-old sex worker who is on a quest to avenge the past.
A girl is hitchhiking through dirt roads as radio broadcasts announce future economic plans for Brazil. The ghost of a dog, her abrupt disappearance, and a herd of translucent sheep crossing the road gives us a hint that we are navigating a space which borders the surreal. The tedious ride leaps across a history of economic subservience. Navigating the roads that her ancestors built, Iracema witnesses the reality of modern day Brazil, and the ravage of the Amazonian forest. It is a portrait of the cyclical history and story of a country exploited in favour of so-called progress. (Emil Vasilache)
Janaina Wagner (São Paulo, Brazil) works with cinema, photography, scenography, drawing, video and installations, researching the relations of limit, control and contention that humankind establishes with the world. Currently on a PhD at Le Fresnoy-Studio National des Arts Contemporains (FR), Wagner participated in several artistic residencies, such as Gasworks (EN), FID Campus – Festival International de Cinéma de Marseille (FR), Bolsa Pampulha (BR), Festival Mondes Possibles – Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers (FR), Casa Tomada (BR), W139 (NL) and NES Skagaströnd (IS). Janaina lives and works between Paris and São Paulo. Her filmography includes the short films Licantropia (2019) and Ventura (2018).