Duarte Rita

When an old fan breaks down in a crowded attic in Marseille, the sweltering heat forces a middle-aged Portuguese man and a young Cameroonian man to work together to fix it, despite not sharing a common language.

One hot night, a child captures the ‘beast’ that has long haunted the chicken coops in their village. The next day, racked with guilt at having hunted it down, she joins her cousins to save it from the adults’ punishment, but hides the fact that it was her hand that wounded it.

Martim is a poetry session regular, but never gained the courage to read in one of them. Later, he meets with his friend Gabriel, and decides to ask him for help with his fear. In the following session, he’s finally ready to read one of his poems.

An ode to projection in cinema, from the work of the projectionist to the machines that light up the theaters.