Sandro Aguilar’s “First Person Plural,” which screens at International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Tiger Competition, has launched its trailer with Variety.
The film is produced by O Som E A Fúria, the company behind Miguel Gomes’ “Tabu” and “Arabian Nights,” Eugène Green’s “The Portuguese Nun” and Lucrecia Martel’s “Zama.”
“First Person Plural” centers on Mateus Lagoa and his wife Irene, who will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary at a luxurious resort on a tropical island, leaving their teenage son dangerously adrift. Before departure, during an unexpected night apart, vaccine side effects strike —fevers, fainting and hallucinations. A melancholic mood creeps in, fracturing their world and hinting at unforeseen dangers.
In a statement, Aguilar comments: “When Mateus and Irene wake up in their idyllic retreat and the whole landscape changes abruptly: luxury hotels, massages, cocktails, stereotypes of a reward on earth, everything takes on a ceremonial nature, everyone died several times before. By now everything should go unpunished, but this kind of post-mortem delirium, which conjures up an artificial paradise, seems to be orchestrated by a vaguely bored cruel demon who, although amused by offering romances and planting traps for his pawns, is powerless to undo their entanglement, their undying love.”
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The film stars Albano Jerónimo, Isabel Abreu and Eduardo Aguilar. The producers are Sandro Aguilar, Luís Urbano and Alessandro Borrelli. La Sarraz Pictures coproduces, with Portugal Film handling world sales.
Sandro Aguilar’s past features include “Mariphasa” and “Uprise.” His short films “The Serpent” and “Corpo e Meio” were nominated for the European Film Awards.