Dinner with Campo de Viboras

Interview with Cristèle Alves Meira, director of Campo de Viboras

 There are some distinctive horror/mystery tropes in the film (the creepy masks, the carnival, the ominous bells at the end, the mysterious death). Are you particularly drawn to this genre?
My first intent with this film was to imagine an extraordinary “fait divers”. Since my childhood, I’ve heard many strange and scary stories about terrible deaths or crimes, which happened around my grandmother’s village in the mountains in the North-East of Portugal. Real dramatic events or sometimes inexplicable dramatic events like a teacher who disappeared during Carnival. All villagers believed that she was rapt by the devil! Theses urban legends inspired my story for this film. I indeed strongly believe that in order to touch soul and mystery, we must speak about drama. I wanted to mix realism and fantasy. All my films look like documentaries, but with a magical storyline.

 Why did you make the decision to leave the ending fairly open? What impression would you like to leave the audience with?
I would like to leave a taste of mystery. I want to tell an inexplicable event. Nobody says/knows what has happened in this house. Where does Lurdes flee to? Did she kill her mother? And why does her leaving coincide with the invasion of snakes? I barely use ellipse to create this sensation of strangeness, all the narrative is built retrospectively. At the end, I would like the audience to feel like the villagers: what has really happened? It’s a contemporary urban legend, different versions are possible.

 Is the story based on a real-life event?
The main character is based on my aunt, who lived with my grandmother during forty years and who decided to leave her one day. She had a late teenager crisis. The big fire, in which the villagers want to burn Lurdes if she comes back in the village is based on a real situation, which happened in my village in the 1990s. A man killed his wife for love, it was a crime of passion. He left the village to go to the police but all the villagers decided to start a big fire to burn him in case he came back. This private justice interests me. Before this, I couldn’t believe that nowadays some people still take justice into their own hands. Well, I do now.

 Why is the mother kept hidden?
I wanted to shoot and play with the off-screen process. Cinema is the best place for that. I have been directing plays for more than ten years and I already used the method of off-stage. It was interesting to test it with a camera as it is very different since on stage, an actor has to show himself in front of the audience. With cinema, it’s possible to never show him! It’s crazy! The mother is like a ghost. But this method also adds some humour to these scenes. I also like the fact that when Lurdes speaks with her mother (off-screen), it seems like a play. Most importantly, it was a way for me to put distance between this character and the audience, so that they do not feel too attached to her as she dies in the end and might even have been killed by her own daughter!

 Any cinematic coups de cœur in the past year you’d like to tell us about?
John From by João Nicolau for its incredible hot light and for the enchanted summer it depicts. And Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade, for the virtuosity of her direction and the freedom of tone (and length). It’s essential for me to feel that everything is possible, as a young director preparing her first feature!

 If you’ve already been to Clermont-Ferrand, could you share with us an anecdote or story from the festival? If not, what are your expectations for this year?
It’s my first time at the festival. I’m very excited and I hope that the film will be greatly received. I look forward to sharing reactions, analyses and feelings with the audience. Clermont-Ferrand being also the Mecca for short films, I know the level of the competitions is very high, that’s why I’m flattered to be selected there but also why I can’t wait to see other shorts and to meet other filmmakers to share our experiences.

More information on your film:

 Campo de Viboras will be screened at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival as part of the International Competition. Are any other releases scheduled ?
Yes, the film will be screened in Angers late January, as part of a special programme showing second shorts (my first one, Sol Branco, was in competition there two years ago). Then, the film will travel to Portugal where it will be shown at the very good festival Cortex in Sintra. I’m also happy as it will be screened before a Portuguese feature film (which was in competition in Locarno this year) to be released next March in Portugal.

Campo de Viboras is being shown in International Competition I2.