22/01/2024 - Seventeen years after her last feature film, Jeanne Waltz returns with a film about complex and intriguing women who defy every category

Set in Portugal, a country Jeanne Waltz knows well, having lived there for over thirty years, in Algarve more specifically, The Fortunate Ones is adapted from the eponymous novel by Portuguese writer Lídia Jorge. The film’s protagonist is Milene, played with intensity by Rita Cabaço, a dynamic, free and daydreaming girl who, despite a slight intellectual disability and thanks to the support of her protective grandmother, has always been able to live her life her own way. Presented in a world premiere at the Solothurn Film Festival where it is competing for the Prix de Soleure, the film shows the richness but also the cultural and social complexity of Portugal, a country still strongly imbued with its colonial past. The gaze devoid of preconceptions and free from sterile social constructions that Milene casts on the reality around her enriches it with a playfulness that is refreshing to say the least.

The year is 1992 when Milene’s grandmother dies suddenly, leaving her alone in the big and dilapidated house where they always lived together. Disoriented but determined not to be controlled by relatives who have always considered her to be a burden, the film’s protagonist decides to go to the disused factory belonging to her bourgeois family, in order to understand who her grandmother really was. She was in fact the one who decided to leave the factory to Milene’s father, who later entrusted it to the workers who, paying a regular rent, decided to live there. A choice which the brothers and sisters of Milene’s father protested, without however having the courage to evict an entire family: the Matas.

Inside the factory, where the grandmother often went looking for the freedom she lacked in her own life, Milene finds a culture, that of Cape Verde, to which she adheres almost instantly, while simultaneously distancing herself further and further from her "real" family. Annoyed by Milene’s independence, her aunts and uncles try, not without a certain embarrassment, to limit the damage that it can cause. They certainly never imagined that their bothersome niece could fall in love and decide to marry a worker from Cape Verde. The question that then faces the family is: how to stop such an abomination, without becoming monsters ourselves? Their reticence isn’t based on any moral scruples but rather on the necessity to save face.

Through her protagonist, the director urges us to consider reality from a perspective that is “other,” more sincere and profound, one that does not lock people up in preconceived social categories. The freedom, spontaneity, and candidness that set Milene apart force us to question the concept of “femininity,” perhaps one of the most suffocating of all categories. The question of motherhood, in connection with mental health, harks back to dark times that unfortunately are not so distant, when people considered not suitable to reach the high spheres of procreativity were simply put out of action.

While Rita Cabaço’s performance, credible and precise, is certainly worthy of note, one might wonder about the choice of a non-disabled actress to play the role of Milene. Having said that, the representation of characters, and especially women, who deviate from the norm certainly remains an attitude to be encouraged.

The Fortunate Ones was produced by Portugal’s C.R.I.M. Produções Audiovisuais together with Switzerland’s Box Productions, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse and RTP Radio televisão de Portugal. International sales are handled by France’s Urban Sales.

(Translated from Italian)