Published: July 05, 2018| 10:00 AM

The competition entry Sueño Florianópolis was brought to Karlovy Vary by director Ana Katz, who had in previous years also attended the Cannes and Sundance Film Festivals with her films. Her picture, full of melancholy as well as comedy playing out against the romantic backdrop of the Brazilian summer resort Florianópolis, tells of first loves and loves long past.

A family is going on vacation from Argentina to Brazil, a country with a similar but not identical language and culture, which creates different storylines and misunderstandings between the characters and according to director Katz, meaning is also lost in the translation for the audience: “We were afraid that they would not get some of the jokes. And there are all the contexts surrounding the two countries. Argentina is melancholic. Brazil is perceived to be full of happiness in comparison, and Argentinians go to Brazil to look for that, as if it were lying around on the street.”

Actress Mercedes Morán was the first to praise working with the director: “Ana works with a certain dose of empathy. She lets me get involved and be the co-creator of my role.” The director adored collaborating on the screenplay with her brother: “I respect him highly. He has a completely different approach than I have, which results in disagreements between us, but of the positive kind.”