Kleber Mendonça Filho
An emblematic filmmaker from Brazil, Kleber Mendonça Filho took classes in journalism before becoming a film critic and programmer. From 1990 onwards, he signed short experimental videos with an inventive eye. In the 2000s, he created short films such as the fantastical film-novel Vinil Verde (presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2005) and Recife Frio (a 2009 mockumentary about the curious cooling of the climate). He then started making feature-length fiction films, with Neighbouring Sounds (2012), Aquarius (in official selection at Cannes in 2016), and Bacurau (Jury Prize at the 2019 Cannes Festival). An independent author-producer, Mendonça Filho affirms the political specificity of his gaze, probing the impact of global capitalism on his native region. Fuelled by an original and non-naturalist cinephilia, his work draws inspiration from the social movement of Cinema Novo and the revival of the genre film, such as burlesque, soap opera, the western, or Carpenter-style chimeric horror. In 2023, his documentary Portaits fantômes was presented at Cannes in the Séances spéciales section.
Critico (2008) – Neighboring Sounds (O Som Ao Redor, 2012) – Aquarius (2016) – Bacurau (2019) – Pictures of Ghosts (2023)