The Brazilian filmmaker Davi Pretto (*1988) is currently the guest of the DAAD's Artists-in-Berlin program. In his two feature-length films, documentary observation, mise-en-scene and fictional elements are connected and in both he works with amateur actors and different guises of genre. CASTANHA (2014) depicts the actor and transvestite João Carlos Castanha, whose best years are behind him. He lives with his mother on a middle-class estate. In the evenings, he performs in gay bars. Details from his everyday life are juxtaposed with elements of fantasy and the visualization of memories. RIFLE (2016), which is set in the deserted expanses of southern Brazil, borrows from the road movie, western and thriller genres. A taciturn former soldier is employed to protect the estate of a smallholder, resorting to drastic measures when a big agricultural corporation makes a bid to buy the land. (bik) (27. & 28.6.)
