Latitude zero

Colour, 35mm
Brazil, 2000, 85 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Our heroine, Lena, has been left by her lover, Colonel Mattos, eight months pregnant. She runs a lonely, out-of-the-way bar off a dusty ‘highway,’ but although a truck does ramble by every now and then, no one stops. Lena is bitter and the last thing she wants to see is a man. So when Vilelo, Mattos’s subordinate, shows up she is rather unpleasantly surprised and upset. But Vilelo has run off and has no other place to hide. He decides to make his stay more pleasant by transforming the ramshackle bar into a prospering business. There is every suggestion that Lena and Vilelo will get together, but that doesn’t take into account Lena’s unborn child, Vilelo’s unpredictability, the unbearably hot sun which saps energy and hope, nor the arid land capable of driving a person mad. Latitude Zero’s script was based on a play by Fernand Bonassi, one of Brazil’s top contemporary writers. The film won Best Screenplay at the 33rd Brazil Film Festival

About the director

Toni Venturi was born in Sao Paulo. He lived in Canada for ten years, graduating in film from Ryerson Polytechnic. He returned to Brazil in 1985 and since then has worked as a film and television director. His filmography includes three short films – Under the Table (1983), Guerras 1985 (1992) and 1999 (1992) – and a four part historical television documentary, The Comrade, the Life of Luiz Carlos Prestes. Latitude Zero is his feature film debut.