Quebrante

(Quebrante)
Janaina Wagner | Documentary, Experimental

2024 | 23 minutes | Brazil

A poetic 16 mm journey with “the Cave Woman” uncovers the ghosts and geology of Brazil’s Trans-Amazonian Highway.

Synopsis

Quebrante probes the environmental and political after-images of Brazil’s Trans-Amazonian BR-230 Highway—a dictatorship-era megaproject that still scars the rainforest. In the tiny pioneer town of Rurópolis, retired school-teacher and spelunker Ms. Erismar (“The Cave Woman”) guides filmmaker Janaina Wagner through caves, abandoned work sites, and nocturnal rituals.

Shot on 16 mm and structured as a “spell breaking,” the film fuses eco-criticism, decolonial geography, and Amazonian folklore to examine how infrastructure, extractivism, and myth co-produce both material and spectral landscapes.

Wagner’s hybrid methodology—part ethnography, part essay film—invites scholars of Latin American studies, environmental humanities, and visual anthropology to consider the highway as a palimpsest of state power, Indigenous erasure, and collective memory.

Reviews

“Quebrante acts as a tender reminder of the anti-capitalist power of connection-making.” — Milda Valiulytė, Glasgow Short Film Festival

“Wagner’s film explores the caves, ruins and phantasmagorias of the Trans-Amazonian Highway, portraying its stones and ghosts.” — Berlinale Press Office

Citation

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Cataloging

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Keywords
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Festivals

Berlin International Film Festival; Mostra de Cinema de Tiradentes; FICCI Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival; Curta Cinema Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival; Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival; DOXA Documentary Film Festival; Curtas Vila do Conde Int. Film Festival; Guanajuato International Film Festival; NeMaf Seoul International New Media Festival; São Paulo International Short Film Festival; Women Make Waves International Film Festival

DIRECTOR: Janaina Wagner

NATIONALITY: Brazil

YEAR: 2024

GENRE: Documentary, Experimental

LANGUAGE: Portuguese

COLOR / B&W: Color

GRADE LEVEL: High School, College, Adult

SUBTITLE/CC: AVAILABLE

AUDIO DESCRIPTION: NOT AVAILABLE

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