Super Natural

It starts with two voices in the dark, although they’re hardly voices, more electronic squelching noises darting back and forth across the soundtrack, their messages subtitled, gently directing us through the film. They speak to each another with such tenderness that they could be in love, although the overlapping “yous”, “Is” and “wes” they keep repeating could also be aimed at those all around them, whether those who later take to the screen or those sitting in the auditorium watching it; guided meditation, like cinema, is a collective experience, something for everybody. Bodies of all kinds duly appear before the camera, filmed with the same tenderness and in so many shifting, shimmering textures: young performers with and without disabilities, filigree crabs and shrimps, drawings of birds, a singing mermaid princess and scuttling plastic insects. These myriad bodies are impossible to separate from the landscape they find themselves in, the waters, rocks and mountains of Madeira, its plants, flowers and fruits, an island as a body full of bodies that are full of bodies in turn; such effortless elimination of boundaries is indeed supernatural. Hug me baby, don’t let me fall. (James Lattimer)

Jorge Jácome, born in 1988 in Portugal. Since studying film, he has made a number of short films since 2013 that have been shown and awarded prizes at international festivals and exhibitions. Past Perfect screened at the Berlinale in 2019. Super Natural is his first feature-length work as a director.

Production Pandora da Cunha Telles, Pablo Iraola. Production company Ukbar Filmes (Lissabon, Portugal). Director Jorge Jácome. Written by André e. Teodósio, Jorge Jácome, José Maria Vieira Mendes. Cinematography Marta Simões. Editing Jorge Jácome. Sound design António Porém Pires. Music Raw Forest, Violet. Sound Shugo Tekina. Production design André e. Teodósio. Co-producers Henrique Amoedo, Daniela Ribeiro. Co-production Dançando com a Diferença, Teatro Praga. With Alexis Fernandes, Bárbara Matos, Bernardo Graça, Celestine Ngantonga Ndzana, Diogo Freitas, Isabel Gomes Teixeira, Joana Caetano, Maria João Pereira, Mariana Tembe, Milton Branco.

World sales Portugal Film

Films (short films): 2013: Plutão (30 min.). 2015: A GUEST + A HOST = A GHOST (16 min.). 2016: Fiesta Forever (21 min.). 2017: Flores (26 min.). 2019: Past Perfect (23 min.). 2022: Super Natural.

Bonus Material