The Fever addresses the dramatic changes to the habitat in Brazil’s Amazon basin. 45-year-old Justino (Regis Myrupu), a member of the Desana tribe, is a security guard at the port of Manaus. A widower, he spends most of his time with his youngest daughter, who lives with him in a house on the city’s outskirts. As she prepares to move to faraway Brasília to study medicine, Justino contracts a mysterious fever. Caught between the traditional lifestyle of his native Amazon village, his daughter’s career and his job in the city, Justino struggles to maintain equilibrium. Maya Da-Rin’s hypnotic visual language captures the difficult balancing act between tradition and modernity to the rhythm of Justino’s daily life as seen through his eyes, both awake and in trance.

»The initial idea for this project emerged while I was shooting two documentaries in the Amazon region, where I met some indigenous families who had left their traditional territories deep within the forest to live in the city. I was also confronted with a new generation of urban indigenous people, who carried their traditions with them as they struggled to find their place in Brazilian society. The stories they told me about their experiences revealed the complex and tense relationship between indigenous cultures and Western civilisation, which has marked Brazilian history since colonial times.« –Maya Da-Rin

Awards for The Fever
Silver Leopard for Best Actor (Regis Myrupu) – Locarno Film Festival 2019 | International Film Critics Award (the FIPRESCI Prize) – Locarno Film Festival 2019