After 25 years of navigating the global film market, Karim Ainouz knows how hard it is to get a movie made. And as a filmmaker working primarily in Brazil, he knows that many productions would not get off the ground without assistance from the Brazillian government. Like many parts of the world, however, things are currently tenuous in South America’s most influential republic. To say the administration of recently elected Brazillian president Jair Bolsonaro is not friendly to the arts is something of an understatement. And that’s one reason why Ainouz is hopefully his latest endeavor, “Invisible Life” (or “The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão” as it is known outside the U.S.) becomes the nation’s first International Film nominee in 20 years.
READ MORE: “The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão” is an intimate, humanist melodrama [Review]
Adapted from Martha Batalha‘s novel of the same name, “Invisible Life” chronicles the unexpected life journeys of two sisters beginning in early 1950s Rio de Janeiro. The picture won the top prize at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard selection and was chosen over another acclaimed Brazillian film at the festival this past year, “Bacurau,” as the nation’s submission to the Academy Awards. And the word is, it’s already screening well with members participating in the first round of International Film voting. Considering that only one Brazillian film has made the shortlist since 1999’s “Central Station,” that’s particularly noteworthy.
Earlier this month, Ainouz joined the Four Quadrant podcast to discuss the remarkable actresses who topline the film, Carol Duarte and Julia Stockler, the lengths he and cinematographer Hélène Louvart (“Happy as Lazzaro”) went to capture the tropical feel of Rio with digital cameras (no easy task) and much more.
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