15/08/2024 - The South African-born director tells us about how she grappled with the paradoxes of the Amazon rainforest and her love for ambiguous female characters

(© Locarno Film Festival/Ti-Press)

After At Ellen’s Age [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which was screened in competition at Locarno back in 2010, Pia Marais is back vying for the Golden Leopard with Transamazonia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pia Marais
film profile]. The film portrays a complex father-daughter relationship, set amidst the imposing and majestic surroundings of the Amazon rainforest. Cineuropa talked to the director about how she conceived her characters and the relationship she has with Amazonia.

Cineuropa: What is your relationship with Amazonia, and why did you decide to shoot a movie there?
Pia Marais: I don’t come from that place. The first time I was there was in 2015, during a very long trip. The idea of shooting a movie in the Amazon rainforest really has to do with deforestation. I remember that, apart from the forest, the place was unbearably hot, and everywhere I went, I saw churches. It was crazy, as even the smallest villages had churches. All this made me feel the urgency of telling this story. I’m not a political person, but I felt the need to speak about it; I couldn’t unsee it. That was the driving force to make me dig deeper into what was happening in the Amazon rainforest. I was also interested in the question of identity, the pattern that your family and your background give you. One grows old and perceives a pattern in his or her behaviour, or how he or she deals with things. That was something very much connected to the father-daughter relationship I wanted to explore. Obviously, we all have imposed narratives, and that is especially true when we think about love. What if someone, like the protagonist, felt that in order to be loved, she had to meet certain conditions, such as playing the healer character? At the same time, from her father’s perspective, life has meaning only through her and her gift.

In the movie, there are different narratives happening at the same time. In your opinion, what brings all of them together? What is the real pivot around which the story unfolds?
In the movie, there are different stories, but for me, they are all connected; they don’t feel detached. From my observations of the reality of evangelism, these multiple narratives make sense. It’s a world, especially in South America, and more precisely Brazil, where miracles and healing children coexist with everyday life. Structurally, it wasn’t easy to bring it all together in the main character, but in my opinion, everything is connected thanks to the forest.

Speaking of the main character, Rebecca, she doesn’t talk much, but she really communicates through her eyes and body language.
I wanted her to be a projection. If she had been too human, the projection wouldn’t have worked in the same way. It was really difficult to find a young actress who could play Rebecca. I really like Helena Zengel’s interpretation of the character because she doesn’t go in this typical evangelical direction; she plays the character much more sincerely. When I first received the casting tapes, I saw so many young actresses, and of course, they were very intense, like evangelists are, but Helena was the opposite, and I thought: “Wow! That is interesting!” Her way of playing Rebecca made me curious. I think that if the character had been played in a more cathartic way, with too much psychology behind it, I wouldn’t have believed in it; it would have been too human. I like female characters who, a bit like Hitchcock’s, are hiding something underneath. Catherine Deneuve, especially in Repulsion, is one of them.

Rebecca’s father is quite ambiguous, and it’s not easy to understand what his real motivations are.
I like ambiguity, I enjoy it. The “middle” is an interesting place to play in. In fact, I was more frightened of not being ambiguous enough. After having been to this world, in the Amazon rainforest, the one thing I didn’t want to do was to judge. Who are we to judge? The situation there is very complex, with so many perspectives. Depending on the perspective you adopt, you perceive the situation in a different way. It’s curious that people always need to categorise. In the end, we are talking about human beings. We have things that we hide and others that we show. Rebecca’s father is clearly fooling himself; he’s not even good at saving himself, and he tries and fails at everything he’s doing because he’s on the wrong path and he is taking everybody else down in the name of Christ, but he’s wrong. He’s the victim of a narrative imposed on him.

The film is also about family and love. Can you tell us more about the father-daughter relationship and Rebecca’s decision to stay with him?
I don’t know why she would have left him. What is unconditional love? I don’t know what it is. Is it continuous, momentary, or linked to a specific situation? Love is moving and ambiguous. I really adore the end of the movie because Rebecca holds him hostage; she imposes her own conditions.