BR /110 minutes / color / Africa Filmes, Globo Filmes, Gullane Filmes Dir: Anna Muylaert Pro: Caio Gullane, Fabiano Gullane, Debora Ivanov, Anna Muylaert Scr: Anna Muylaert Cine: Barbara Alvarez Mus: Fabio Trummer Víctor Araújo Cast: Regina Casé (Val), Michel Joelsas (Fabinho), Camila Márdila (Jéssica), Karine Teles (Bárbara), Lourenço Mutarelli (Carlos) Release Date (Spain) 26 June 2015. Spanish title: Una segunda madre.
Awards: Regina Casé and Camila Márdila were awarded the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting at Sundance Film Festival 2015 for their role in The Second Mother. The Second Mother also won the Panorama Audience Award at the 65th edition of the Berlin film festival, Berlinale 2015.
Synopsis: Val (Regina Casé) is a housekeeper working for a rich family in São Paulo. She is been washing, cooking and cleaning for what seems like an eternity. She is also a caring confidante of 17-year-old Fabinho (Michel Joelsas), whose mother never seems to have any time for him. Val left her own daughter Jéssica (Camila Márdila) back at home far away; the pair has not seen each other for over ten years. All of a sudden the girl announces her arrival. Now a self-confident young woman, she intends to study architecture in São Paulo and refuses to calmly accept the rules that exist between master and servant. Instead of sharing her mother’s humble room, she moves into the spacious guest bedroom. She helps herself to anything she fancies from the fridge and even frolics about in the pool with Fabinho and his friends. Bit by bit the once unshakable rules of the house begin to disintegrate, much against Val’s will. And then, in the midst of an argument between mother and daughter, Jéssica’s well-kept secret comes to light … (Source: Berlinale)
Que horas ela volta? (literally: What Time Does She Return?) is a 2015 Brazilian drama written and directed by Anna Muylaert. Yesterday, Begoña and I had the opportunity to go see it. For me, summer has always been cinema season. A safe place to take shelter from summer heat. This year wasn’t going to be an exception. Fortunately The Second Mother is a film that’s worth watching. The Hollywood Reporter has summed it up as follows: ‘Beautifully written and acted with precision, this film’s a winner’.
Anna Muylaert (born April 21, 1964) is a Brazilian screenwriter and television and film director. Anna studied filmmaking at the School of Communications and Arts at University of São Paulo (USP) from 1980 to 1984, when she stopped from attending at USP. She became a film critic for IstoÉ and O Estado de S. Paulo and in 1988 she joined the staff of Rede Gazeta’s program TV Mix. In 1999, she worked as an editor and reporter on TV Cultura’s Matéria-Prima. She also wrote scripts on another Cultura programs, Mundo da Lua (1991–92) and Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum (1994–97). Muylaert directed six short films—the most notable being A Origem dos Bebês Segundo Kiki Cavalcanti (1995) which won awards at Rio Cine e Cine Ceará —before directing her first feature film, Durval Discos (2002). It won seven awards out of fourteen at Festival de Gramado, including Best Director and Best Film. Seven years after he released her second film, É Proibido Fumar, which won eight awards at Festival de Brasília, including Best Screenplay and Best Film. Muylaert directed Chamada a Cobrar (2012), based on a television film Para Aceitá-la Continue na Linha (2010) in which she was the director. Her fourth film, The Second Mother, entered the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and Panorama at Berlinale film festival in which the film got the Audience Award (source: Wikipedia).
Read an Interview with Anna Muylaert here in Filmmaker Magazine
Regina Casé was born on February 25, 1954 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is an actress, comedian, television host, and director, known for Eu Tu Eles (2000), Central da Periferia (2006) and The Second Mother (2015).
Camila Márdila is an actress, known for The Second Mother (2015) and O Outro Lado do Paraíso (2014). Q & A with Brazilian actress Camila Márdila of The Second Mother.
A Crime is Afoot 