Dry Ground Burning
Adirley Queirós & Joana Pimenta / & / 2022
An epic Brazilian festival hit that mixes action and raw docu-realism in its story of two real-life sisters who run an illegal oil refinery in the middle of a favela and defend it fiercely. Dark, intense and deliriously innovative.
Chitara and her sister Léa run a homemade oil refinery in the backyard of the Sol Nascente favela where they live, and together they defend every inch of their territory with rifle bullets. Here, on the margins of society, the illegal oil is sold in bottles and cans on the black market, while the lights of the metropolis of Brasilia flicker like a mirage on the horizon. A delirious mix of an action film and raw documentary realism, ‘Dry Ground Burning’ lets Chitara, Léa and their friends play themselves at the heart of their own environment. Adirley Queirós and Joana Pimenta’s epic docu-drama has been received as one of the most innovative films of the last year.