EXCLUSIVE:Poster for Brazilian filmmaker Gabriel Mascaro’sDIVINE LOVE. Premieres at the Sundance Film Festival tonight in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section and will play the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section in February.
SYNOPSIS:
In the year 2027, in a dystopian Brazil, a deeply religious woman uses her position in a notary’s office to advance her mission to save struggling couples from divorce. Whilst waiting for a Sign in recognition of her efforts, she is confronted with a crisis in her own marriage that ultimately brings her closer to God.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT:
Brazil is traditionally referred to as a liberal and united country, where the annual Carnaval celebrations espouse the country’s diversity and cordiality. But during the past few years, a cultural, social and political transformation led by powerful, ultraconservative forces, with substantial support from media outlets, has taken hold in the country.
The film takes place in 2027 when the majority of the population is Evangelical, but the state still claims to be secular. It is a film that speculates about the near future through an extraordinary allegory, despite the fact that the present day displays ever stronger signs of this reality.
Instead of telling the story of a character fighting against this conservative shift - a strategy that would have been easier for me, perhaps - I wanted to challenge myself to do the opposite, to tell the story of a woman consumed by a desire to radically advance the conservative religious agenda in a very personal way. I am interested in creating characters that have different values to my own as I believe that within the differences that separate us you can find openings and fissures that provide opportunities to connect us. I wanted to make a humane movie, as a means of bringing me closer to a character who, a priori, I might reject.
If a societal chasm has emerged as a result of hatred and misunderstanding, cinema is a space where we can fantasize improbable encounters. DIVINE LOVE is a universal story about the pulsating desire of a woman whose faith is the cornerstone of her life. About a woman who waits and searches for a divine sign, and ends up receiving a greater sign than she was prepared for, that will either lead her to question everything or bring her even closer to God.
This is not a film only about Brazil, it is a commentary on the conservative, fanatical and nationalist agenda that is spreading throughout the world and the way that those who don’t espouse it, might engage with it.
