In a conservative and swampy Brazil, a birthday party is held at a fatherless home. Joana, the birthday girl, wants to get her period soon. Her brother, Dudu, wants his father home. When teenager Verbena arrives unannounced, all the wishes can come true. But not without some pain.
Direction
Araújo's patient, humid atmosphere that never explains too much.
Acting
Karolayne Rayssa's Verbena — magnetic, threatening, heartbreaking.
Cinematography
Swamp as character — suffocating greens and impossible humidity.
Director
Laís Santos Araújo
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Araújo shot in her hometown in Alagoas, using the actual swamp where she grew up hearing folk tales about dangerous women who grant impossible wishes. The humidity is real — crew members passed out.
The film quietly indicts Brazil's military dictatorship legacy through the absent father figure — 'infantry' as both military unit and the infantilized, weaponized children left behind. The birthday party becomes a recruitment ritual.
BR
