About Dia de festa (Party Day)
by William Le Personnic
Can we ever forget our sorrows during celebrations? Today is her daughter’s birthday – Clara – but Mena is restless (her husband is gone, her father is in hospital). Behind the scene of this joyful occasion, reality is bleak: financially strapped, they use less butter for the cake and their common preparations are depicted as understated ordeals. The filmmaker captures, in a raw 16mm film, a day where cracks appear from every direction, much like this misspelled “congratulations” written in tinsel. What should have been a day of celebration - as the title would have you believe – is nothing but unrelenting sadness.
