Institute History
Description
One of the unqualified highlights of this year's Film Festival, Me, You, Them puts an amiable spin on polygamy with a delectable tale of a woman, her three husbands, and their motley brood. Based on a television report of a real-life Dona Flor, Me, You, Them delights in dismantling traditional family values and positing its own distinctive interpretation of domestic bliss. From an exquisite screenplay by Elena Soarez, Andrucha Waddington has crafted a joyous and irrepressible comedy with sensitivity, grace, and maturity light years beyond his age and experience.
Our tale begins in the dusty, timeless provinces of Brazil's picturesque northeast. Dolores (the remarkable Regina Case), not the most youthful or beauteous flower in God's garden but a willful and ebullient spirit, is abandoned at the altar. Barefoot and pregnant, she storms off in search of a husband only to return solo three years later, son in tow, for her mother's burial. When a crusty old neighbor, Osias, offers to take her hand, she accepts in a gesture of pure pragmatism. But within a short while, she finds herself miserable, pregnant, and enslaved to the unaffectionate brute. Slowly, Dolores discovers the resolve to seize life on her own terms and, through an intricate series of partnerings and hammock hoppings, manages to satisfy her every whim and fancy and successfully meld the perfect man.
A gorgeous production soaked in the sensual kinetic rhythms of Gilberto Gil's forró-inspired dance track, Me, You, Them is as warm and bright as its sun-scorched locale.