A Morte Diária

Like many other Brazilians, Daniel Lentini moved to Rio for professional reasons. However, he has never forgotten his roots: Varginha, in the state of Minas Gerais, in the southwest of the country. To fight against amnesia, he chose to film his town, starting with the surrounding countryside, into which he delves. With a rare grace, he captures all the little things, which are threatened with extinction, that make up an individual and a collective memory. He creates what he calls his “apocalyptic encyclopaedia”: a gesture, a look, the curve of a hillside, a birthday song... as well as of course the words of those who remain. A work that is therefore profoundly personal, but more than that. The crumbling of memories does not only affect Varghina. Lentini uses the tools of a poet to ask questions about progress and the expansion of towns, sowing so many “little deaths” along the way. The film has a rhythm, its own spirit, somewhere between the past, the present and the future. A marvellous act of vengeance on the passage of time.
(Pamela Pianezza)