Pale Black

1929. A young doctor returns to Brazil to visit the grave of his fiancée, with whom he had corresponded by letter. At the dead woman’s family mansion he meets Analu, her younger sister — who begins to reveal secrets that were never buried.

Pale Black is loosely inspired by “A Casa do Pântano” (The Swamp House), a short story by Mário Peixoto — director of Limite (1931), a classic of Brazilian auteur cinema — published in Bazar magazine in 1931. The short revives the writer’s existential, romantic drama and brings its atmosphere into a contemporary language, told through intertitles, like 1920s cinema.

Written and directed by Diego Florentino, with cinematography by Carlos Ebert, ABC, the film was shot in September 2013 in Lapa, Paraná — at the São Sebastião Hospital and in mansions of the historic center — as well as in Curitiba and Ponta Grossa. It was the first short by production company Filmes Trópico, executive produced by Rudolfo Auffinger, and premiered at the Mostra CAIXA de Cinema, in Curitiba, in January 2015.

Watch the full film on this page.