“Alma viva” sweeps the Sophia Awards

Living soul, Last weekend, the first feature film by the Portuguese-French director Cristèle Alves Meira won 6 of the 13 Sophia Awards from the Portuguese Film Academy for which it was nominated: Best Film, Actress (the young Lua Michel, daughter of the director), Secondary Actress (Ana Padrão), Original Script, Photography and Characterization/Special Effects. The film, which will be released in Spanish theaters on June 9, won the Pilar Miró Award for Best New Director at the last edition of Seminci and was nominated by Portugal for the Oscar for Best International Film. In addition, he participated in the 2022 Cannes Critics’ Week.

A co-production between Portugal, France and Belgium, it tells the story of little Salomé, who, like every summer, returns from vacation to her family town nestled in the Portuguese mountains. There she enjoys herself with her aunts and cousins ​​in a happy and festive atmosphere, until the death of her beloved grandmother, with whom she had a great connection, occurs unexpectedly. As the adults fight each other and the townspeople before her burial, Salome begins to feel haunted by the spirit of her ancestors.

According to Cristèle Alves Meira (Montreuil, 1983), “there is a renewed interest in rituals, magic and superstitions. These tales of witches, from ‘other times’, continue to provoke our imagination, but sometimes the fascination they arouse is misinterpreted. This is not a genre movie. It is a film about the field, almost anthropological, inspired by real experiences of witchcraft with which I have had close contact. I spent my childhood listening to stories of bad luck and curses.” Alves Meira, who began her career as an actress and theater director, has behind her a renowned and award-winning career in the field of documentary and fiction short films.

Living soul competed at the Sophia Awards with titles such as Wolf and Coh, by Cláudia Varejão, Remains of Wind, by Tiago Guedes, Nothing ever happened, by Gonçalo Galvão Teles, A Film in the Form of Assim, of Joao Botelho, and To Peter’s Journeyby Laís Bodanzky, among others.