AQUARIUS Starring Sonia Braga
Brazilian actress Sonia Braga has the role of her life in this engrossing and richly surprising portrait of a fiercely intelligent and independent woman fighting to save the apartment she loves from demolition.
Proud and beautiful sixty-year-old widow Clara lives in a sophisticated district of the Brazilian coastal town of Recife. Played with great authenticity and flair by Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands) Clara is a fiercely independent and intelligent retired music critic and the last resident of the seaside Aquarius apartment building. It is here that she has lived in wedlock, brought up her children, and survived both breast cancer and her country’s eventful past. Suddenly her home is earmarked for demolition. Every other apartment has been acquired by a development company with plans for the site. Clara, however, refuses to leave a place full of precious memories – even if this means having to deal with her family, coldblooded investors and her city’s political corruption. Sonia Braga, the legendary star of Brazilian cinema, captivates the audience in the greatest performance of her long career. (Brazil/France, 2016, 145 min., In Portuguese with English subtitles | Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)