Alma Viva

Cristèle Alves Meira – born in Montreuil in 1983 – is a stage director, and a director of documentaries and short films. Her first feature film took her back to her homeland. The country of her origins, Portugal. A winning return that earned her a place in the Critics’ Week selection for a simple, raw story set in a village nestled deep in the mountains. A village that the men have somewhat abandoned, but where the women are strong-willed, with deeply-rooted beliefs and sharp tongues. What we sometimes sense as the ‘soul of a place’ – which the filmmaker strives to make slightly strange, a little out of place – is created here by the grace of the light, the vitality of the story and the magic of the picturesque image. (Véronique Cauhapé; Le Monde)�