Samuel and the Light

Samuel lives in Ponta Negra, a little fishing village on the Paraty coast of Brazil. The arrival of electricity in the village, spearheaded by the “Light For All” initiative, will turn his life upside down. Over the course of six years, between 2016 and 2022, director Vinícius Girnys set out to meet Samuel and his family to “understand how relationships change” as a result of this transformation. While for some members of the family the arrival of electricity is seen as diabolical, for others it offers comfort and a less restrictive daily life – in particular relieving the burden of carrying kilos of laundry to be washed in the river upstream of their makeshift homes. Some see this as an upgrade and a great business opportunity, while others only see the seeds of corruption. Little by little, the Garden of Eden emerges as a metaphorical lens. But the filmmaker does not seek to impose a didactic vision of this arrival of electricity. He strives to “show a community faced with radical changes in a disastrous social and environmental context, at a human scale”, as well as its long-term consequences, in particular the arrival of tourism. For this, he creates moments of “fictionalisation of reality”, in a gentle and incandescent portrait of this changing village that oscillates between shots filmed by candlelight – worthy of a De La Tour painting – and fireworks imported by tourists.
Charlotte Serrand