Legua: What is this poignant film that moved audiences at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival?

What are you doing?

In an old mansion in the north of Portugal, Ana helps Emilia, an old housekeeper, who continues to take care of a house where the owners no longer visit. Throughout the seasons, Monica, Anna’s daughter, questions her mother’s choices, and these three generations of women struggle to understand their place in a declining world where the cycle of life only resumes after an inevitable end.

A sensitive portrait of a completely changing world

Legua is the name of a small village in northern Portugal where the family home in which Joao Miller Guerra spent several summers stood. After presenting films in competition at the 2018 Rotterdam festival and his first feature, Djon Africa, the director reunites with Philippa Reiss for a second feature.

In cinemas from December 13, this powerful drama, presented on Filmmakers’ Monday at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, portrays a country in full evolution through two women from different generations.

“As an adult, I began to think about the significance of this palace, the lives of the people who lived there, the social and economic structures that supported it, and the human relationships that formed there.– says the Portuguese co-director. This reflection deepened during the conversation with Philippa, when she began to frequent the place.”

“When we started researching this film, we learned that the lady who was taking care of the house full-time and also living there got sick. It was his colleague who generously welcomed him into his home. This gesture is the starting point of this film.”

This intimate chronicle and a piece of realistic and rural Portuguese cinema explores political questions beyond the reflection and reflection on the importance of helping our elders and accompanying them in their last moments.

Touching on the class struggle as it reveals the two main characters, servants who break the rules and start living in a bourgeois house isolated by its wealthy owners, Legua also wants to be a testament to the heritage and the region.

Realistic but with real attention to detail in the staging, this drama is illuminated by the performances of its actors, who perfectly portray the doubts that keep them alive in an ever-moving reality.

In this way, Carla Maciel, Fatima Soares, Vitória Nogueira da Silva, Sara Machado, Paulo Calatre and Manuel Mozos manage to show all their talents in front of the camera of the cinematographer duo, which we will undoubtedly see and see on a large scale. screen.

Discover Légua, now and exclusively in cinemas.