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THE FISRT DEATH OF JOANA

A PRIMEIRA MORTE DE JOANA

By Cristiane OLIVEIRA

Second film - Post-Production 2018

Joana, 12, needs to unravel a mystery. Why her great-aunt Rosa never had a boyfriend and ended up dying a virgin, at 70 years old? While she is helped by her friend Carolina in her “investigations", a large wind power plant is being built in her quiet little town by the lagoons of southern Brazil.

- Year of production
- 2018
- Genres
- Second film, Drama
- Countries
- BRAZIL
- Languages
- GERMAN, PORTUGUESE
- Budget
- 1 - 3 M$
- Duration
- 93 mn
- Director(s)
- Cristiane OLIVEIRA
- Writer(s)
- Cristiane OLIVEIRA, Silvia LOURENÇO
- Cast
- Letícia KACPERSKI, Isabela JARDIM, Joana VIEIRA, Lisa BECKER
- Synopsis
- Joana, 12, needs to unravel a mystery. Why had her great-aunt Rosa never had a boyfriend and ended up dying a virgin, at 70 years old? Helped by her friend Carolina in her “investigations", Joana will make a startling discovery about herself: her first love. The feelings that arise between the two girls set Joana on a collision course with the conservatism of the adult world around her and in her own self. While Joana plunges into her imaginary universe to find answers, a large windpower plant is being built in her quiet little town by the lagoons of southern Brazil.
  
  Joana, a slightly built, blonde girl, lives with her mother, Lara, and her grandmother, Norma - descendants of the immigrants who came from Germany in 1824 and settled in Osório. In this small town from the south of Brazil, nestled between big lakes and mountains covered with native forest, they make their living making “cucas” (or zuckerkuchen – a yeast cake sprinkled with sugar and fruit, which is typical of the German community in the area). While Lara and Norma work, Joana was used to spend her free time making art craft with her great-aunt, Rosa. Norma’s sister, a retired art teacher and artisan, with 70 years old, Rosa never had a boyfriend.
  Joana identifies herself with her grandaunt, not only because of her artistic abilities, but also for her unwillingness to date. Shaken by her death, Joana keeps her grandaunt alive in her own particular universe. When she finds out that the person Carolina kissed for the first time was a girl, Joana feels disturbed by the growing intimacy between herself and her best friend. She has the intuition that if she discovers her grandaunt's secret, something in her life might change. So she starts questioning everyone around her about Rosa.
  The stories she hears don't provide her with concrete clues. However, little by little, she understands something new from the world of adults: the desire for someone. Before, the main reason for arguing with her mother was Joana's wish to cross the road to go to the wind turbines – which Lara wouldn't allow because it was too dangerous for a 12-year-old girl. Now, the problem became her “boyish” attitudes and Carolina's influence, which makes Joana go too far in her investigation.