The Jacaranda Storm

by Duarte Coimbra

Next Step 2020

Portugal

Feature Film

Helena, 23, is questioning her future: she drops out of school, splits up with her boyfriend and comes back to live with her parents, finding regressive comfort in the family unit. At a party, she meets a mysterious young couple, João and Teresa, two environmentalist activists who seem to have a utopian plan to sail to a new world… 

With his first feature, Duarte continues to shine a spotlight on young people who have lost their bearings between economic and environmental anguish and their hopes for a new world. His films - much like the flower storm of this title - embodies the ambivalent, chiaroscuro movement of a contemporary “saudade”.
 A story that combines a sweet, sharp take
on a generation and the gusto of consciously naïve lyricism to make a thoroughly modern film offering the possibility of a new-found land as an answer to cynicism.