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The Girl From Recife

Clara, a 65 year old widow and retired music critic, was born into a wealthy and traditional family in Recife, Brazil. She is the last resident of the Aquarius, an original two-story building, built in the 1940s, in the upper-class, seaside Avenida Boa Viagem, Recife. All the neighbouring apartments have already been acquired by a company which has other plans for that plot. Clara has pledged to only leave her place upon her death, and will engage in a cold war of sorts with the company, a confrontation which is both mysterious, frightening and nerve wracking. This tension both disturbs Clara and gives her that edge on her daily routine. It also gets her thinking about her loved ones, her past and her future.

Sonia Braga delivers a tour-de-force performance as Dona Clara in Kleber Mendonça Filho's follow up to his audacious 2012 debut, Neighbouring Sounds, where, once again, the Brazilian film critic, turned director, examines human life in urban spaces in his home town of Recife. Clara's eclectic collection of LP's and her vintage French 3-sheet poster of Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, the latter item belonging to the director, will delight lovers of packaged media and memorabilia, items that Clara herself calls 'special objects'.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p)
Original 5.1 audio (uncompressed on the Blu-ray)
Optional English subtitles
New interview with Director Kleber Mendonça Filho conducted by critic Ian Haydn Smith
Making-of featurette
The short films Green Vinyl, Electodoméstica and The World Cup in Recife
Trailer

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Booklet featuring writing on the film by Sophie Monks Kaufman

This has been getting some great reviews in the most recent issues of Sight & Sound and Little White Lies, usually with the description that this is in a more intimate and upper middle-class range than Neighbouring Sounds' ensemble working class one.

Though in terms of a tenant battling against escalating attempts by a property developer to force an eviction it will have to be quite something to beat *Batteries Not Included!

It's a step back from the ambition of Neighbouring Sounds, but it's a great film nonetheless. It's a more traditional hero-against-the-odds drama, but it's full of atypical details and deft little directorial touches, and Braga gives a superbly modulated star turn.

You've put the cover for Doberman Cop instead...

Some shorts were added to this release - Vinil Verde, Eletrodoméstica and World Cup in Recife. Also comes with a slip covered in stars and quotes.

I think this is a fantastic release, with the inclusion of the short films being a wonderful bonus making up for the absence of any shorts on the Artificial Eye release of Neighbouring Sounds. It's great that Arrow have taken the care to make this an exemplary package.

Not sure why those shorts aren't being advertised. Green Vinyl is a nice bit of Ruizian fun.