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Dry Ground Burning
Institute of Contemporary Arts
Dry Ground Burning (Mato seco em chamas), dirs. Adirley Queirós & Joana Pimenta, Brazil / Portugal 2022, 153 min., Portuguese with English subtitles

This new TERRATREME production directed by Adirley Queirós and Joana Pimenta explores the turbulence of contemporary Brazil through the prism of the Gasolineiras de Kebradas: fearless Chitara, her sister Léa and their all-female gang in the Sol Nascente favela on the edge of Brasília, who hijack a pipeline in order to sell oil to their community. 

Arid landscapes, handmade machinery and metadimensional narratives combine to present an almost dreamlike reality. Lived-in locations, spontaneous protests against the Bolsonaro regime, and non-professional actors playing versions of themselves all help to form fictionalised layers interwoven with everyday struggles, exploring a reality that keeps burning beneath and above the earth. Dry Ground Burning offers an unflinching contemporary – and, perhaps, futuristic – reflection on what it means to embrace communality with painful ardour.
 
Ticket information
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