The feature film O HOMEM DAS MULTIDÕES (The Man of the Crowd) by the two directors Cao Guimarães and Marcelo Gomes will celebrate its international premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2014. Both directors and the lead actors Paulo André and Silvia Lourenço will be available for interviews in Berlin.
Juvenal is a train driver for the metro in Belo Horizonte; Margô controls train traffic. Both live in a state of deep solitude – each in their own way. This film is a reflection on different forms of loneliness and friendship in an overcrowded Brazilian urban environment.
Cao Guimarães is a filmmaker and one of the most successful video artists from Brazil. His films have been invited to festivals in Locarno, Venice, Sundance, Cannes, Rotterdam, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, among others. His video installations, films and photographs have been exhibited at a number of international art museums, such as the TATE, the Guggenheim and MoMA.
Marcelo Gomes is a script-writer and director. His first feature, CINEMA, ASPIRIN AND VULTURES, premiered at Un Certain Regard, Cannes, in 2005 and received France’s Award of the Ministry of Education. It has been awarded with more than 50 prizes worldwide. In 2009 he presented at Venice International Film Festival I TRAVEL BECAUSE I HAVE TO, I COME BACK BECAUSE I LOVE YOU, co-directed with Karim Ainouz. His last film ONCE UPON A TIME WAS I, VERONICA premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012. It has been awarded several prizes at film festivals in San Sebastian, Brasilia, Amazonas, Havana and Guadalajara. O HOMEM DAS MULTIDÕES (The Man of the Crowd) is a Brazilian coproduction by Cinco em Ponto in association with REC Produtores Associados.
International sales and festivals are handled by FiGa Films. International and German press is handled by mm filmpresse. Press material can be downloaded shortly from www.mm-filmpresse.de.
The directors Cao Guimarães and Marcelo Gomes as well as the lead actors Paulo André and Silvia Lourenço will be available for interviews during the Berlin International Film Festival. Please contact mm filmpresse to schedule individual slots as soon as possible.
| Screenings at 64th Berlin International Film Festival:
Monday 10.02.2014 22:30 Cinemaxx 7
Further screenings will be announced shortly. |
Synopsis: Juvenal and Margô work for the subway in Belo Horizonte. Juvenal is a train conductor and Margô works as a station controller. Apart from sharing the same workplace, the only thing that they have in common is the fact that they are both deeply solitary individuals, each seeking out their own way of dealing with the hard challenge of establishing socially meaningful relationships in a vast metropolis. Juvenal’s daily routine is orchestrated around the need to be close to the intense activity of downtown streets. Incapable of being alone, he has become addicted to crowds, he taps the energy of every single particle of human presence. Yet, in his endless pursuit of circulating communities in the streets, he never manages to interact with anyone. Margô, on the other hand, confines herself to a virtual reality: the internet. She is afraid of talking face to face and she even met her fiancé in an internet chatroom. Due to her lack of close friends she asks her colleague Juvenal to become her marriage witness. Juvenal is at first hesitant, but then he slowly begins to respond to and recognise Margô’s friendship. In turn, Margô becomes increasingly attracted to this reserved man who appears to be the only person who understands her.
In O HOMEM DAS MULTIDÕES (The Man of the Crowd) the two directors Cao Guimarães and Marcelo Gomes produce incredibly powerful imagery. Train stations, rail yards, traffic centers – these images create a permanent tension between stagnation and movement; the paralysis of the main characters and the rhythmic flow of the crowd. A disturbing, deeply human love story full of hope.
