FNC 2017: Gabriel and the Mountain

Gabriel and the Mountain
International Panorama

BRAZIL , FRANCE | 127 MINUTES | 2017 

The film was awarded two prizes at the Critics' Week in Cannes :

• Gan Foundation Award for Distribution
• France 4 Visionary Award 

The film is based on a true story of Gabriel Buchmann, filmed and created by the Director Fellipe Barbosa, Gabriel's school friend.

The film begins with showing Gabriel Buchmann's last destination at the Mulanje mountain massive in Malawi after having descended from its highest Sapitwa Peak. The magnificent mountainous vistas set the tone to the subsequent portrayal of what type of a man Gabriel was, how concerned he was about poor strata of human societies around the world. It is a travel-log documenting the last African segment of Gabriel's year-long world wide journey, having already spent 10 months on the road. It alludes to some of his former destinations, but focuses squirrelly only on his final and very exotic African segment.

Fellipe Barbosa's work resurrects the memory of his friend. He used Gabriel's notes, photos taken by him and retrieved from his camera, and also the memories of his girlfriend, his friends, and the people he met in Africa and who befriended and helped him on his journey.  

Gabriel was accepted for Doctoral Studies in economics at the UCLA. Before entering this prestigious American university in California, and not satisfied with the standard socio-economic theories why poor people exist even in overall prosperous societies, he decided to do an in-field research and use this material for his dissertation. The conversations and arguments he has with his girlfriend who joins him on her short African stop-over elucidate some of his social concerns and his dissatisfactions of the accepted academic views.

His death on the Mulanje slope remains a mystery. Or was it just as what his last African guide warned him about?

FNC FILM SYNOPSES

"From Brazil to Africa, a coming-of-age tale about an idealistic traveller and his voyage of self-discovery triggered by culture shock. For his sophomore feature, Brazilian director Fellipe Barbosa (Casa Grande) re-examines a news item about a real-life former classmate. Gabriel and the Mountain recreates the economics student’s last 70 days after he sets off enthusiastically to discover Africa but mysteriously disappears while climbing Mount Mulanje in Malawi. Tragic and elegiac."

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director : Fellipe Barbosa

Screenwriters : Fellipe Barbosa, Lucas Paraizo, Kirill Mikhanovsky

Cinematographer : Pedro Sotero

Editor : Théo Lichtenberger

Sound : Pedro Sá Earp, Waldir Xavier

Sound Mixer : Bruno Tarrière

Art Director : Ana Paula Cardoso

Lead Actors : João Pedro Zappa and Caroline Abras

Casting : Amanda Gabriel

Music : Arthur B. Gillette

Producers : Rodrigo Letier, Roberto Berliner, Clara Linhart, Yohann Cornu

Co-Producers : Olivier Père, Rémi Burah, Vincho Nchogu

Executive Producer : Mauro Pizzo

Production : TV Zero, Damned Films
Coproduction : Arte France Cinéma, Canal Brasil

Distribution (Canada) : Chantale Pagé – MAISON 4:3  

Original version in English, Portuguese, Swahili, Chichewa, French – with English or French subtitles.

About the Filmmaker Fellipe Barbosa

Born in Rio de Janeiro, he directed the short films La Muerte es pequeña and Salt Kiss, selected at NYFF, Clermont-Ferrand, Guadalajara and Sundance. In 2008, he developed the screenplay of Casa Grande at the Sundance labs; the film premiered at Rotterdam's competition in 2014. Gabriel and the Mountain is his second fiction feature. 

FILM TRAILER  

SCREENING

FRIDAY OCTOBER 6, 2017

Program #35 / 18:30 / Cinéma du Parc 2
TUESDAY OCTOBER 10, 2017
Program #160 /14:40 /Cinéma du Parc 1

N.B. Both screenings will be hosted by the film's director Fellipe Barbosa.

For more informations about the FNC, the program, film scheduling and various venues visit the FNC festival's website.

Gabriel and the Mountain will open in theatres on October 6. 

The film will screen in its original version with English subtitles at Cineplex Forum (Montreal), and in its original version with French subtitles at Cinéma Beaubien (Montreal), Cinéma Le Clap (Quebec), La Maison du Cinéma (Sherbrooke), Cinéma Le Tapis Rouge (Trois-Rivières) and Cinema Pine (Ste-Adèle).