SYNOPSIS

Logline

PAULA, 38 years old, is invited for a weekend in an isolated country house. She is surprised to find two couples falling into deep relationship crisis in this scenic setting. Her presence unveils conflicts that had gone by unnoticed until then.

Synopsis

THE FROGS is a dramedy about codependent romantic relationships. The plot takes place over one day and one night, in a rustic country house rented by Luciana and Marcelo, who—despite having been together for eight years—have never been openly serious about their relationship. Their neighbors and friends, Cláudio and Fabiana, are seemingly happy. But it only takes getting to know them better to realize they have a very toxic relationship. Paula, Marcelo’s friend since his teens, soon understands she is entering a mine field. She decides to have a fun weekend despite the conflicts she might spark.

CHARACTERS

PAULA

38 years old, outgoing, upbeat, sensitive, works at a magazine for female writers. Recently separated. She was invited by Marcelo to reconnect with classmates from school. She wants to unwind, get a breath of fresh air, and discover new places.

LUCIANA

35 years old, pretty, high energy, meticulous. She loves Marcelo and accepts to live with him in a romantic relationship that only exists within the limits of this country house. Paula’s arrival makes her jealous and uncomfortable. She wants to have children with Marcelo and start a family.

MARCELO

38 years old, charming, works at a bookstore, no great ambitions in life. It doesn’t take much to make him happy. Laid-back style. He is emotionally immature and doesn’t want to be open about his relationship with Luciana. He prefers to keep it as is, even though he knows Luciana isn’t happy.

FABIANA

40 years old, melancholic and fragile, married to Cláudio and mother to two sons who don’t live with them. She works at an expensive clothes store, but dreams of becoming a writer. She submits herself to Cláudio in name of the unconditional love he claims to feel for her. She has a serious illness and is afraid to upset Cláudio.

CLÁUDIO

41 years old, good looking, vain, outgoing, plays music in bars. He’s married to Fabiana and treats her like a doll, a belonging. He loves Fabiana and is extremely jealous of her. He gets violent when contested. He would rather deny Fabiana’s disease than face it. He wants to have a hit song.

CREW

Credits

Directed by: Clara Linhart
Written by: Renata Mizrahi
Produced by: Fernanda Abreu
Cinematographer: Andrea Capella
Art Director: Ana Paula Cardoso
Costume Designer: Paula Ströher
Original Score: Patrick Laplan

Director Clara Linhart’s Filmography

Clara Linhart directed the shorts OS SAPOS (fiction, 18’, 2011), LUNA E CINARA (documentary, 14’, 2012), and EM PAZ (documentary, 23’, 2014). Her first feature length movie, LA MANUELA (documentary, 86’, 2017) was screened in the following festivals: Encuentros del Otro Cine (Ecuador), Panorama Coisa de Cinema (Brazil), Cine de Madrid (Spain), Femme Revolution Film Fest (Mexico), and more. LA MANUELA won the Best Documentary category prize at the 22º Festival Audiovisual do Mercosul (Brazil).
In 2018, DOMINGO (fiction, 85’), a movie she co-directed with Fellipe Barbosa, premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival. It was later screened at festivals in Busan, Lima, Munich, Brasília, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. It was commercially released in France and Brazil. DOMINGO took prizes for the following categories: Best Actress for Ítala Nandi at Festival do Rio and Festival de Fronteira; Popular Jury Prize at Festival de Fronteira; and Film Club Prize at the Festival Luso Brasileiro de Santa Maria da Feira.

Crew’s Filmography

Renata Mizrahi is a screenwriter and a playwright. She has written theater plays such as OS SAPOS, GALÁPAGOS, SILÊNCIO, COISAS QUE A GENTE NÃO VÊ, and JOAQUIM E AS ESTRELAS, as well as the TV shows TEM CRIANÇA NA COZINHA, MINHA ESTUPIDEZ, VAI QUE COLA, A VILA, and more. She was awarded the prize for Best Screenplay with AMORES DE CHUMBO, a feature fiction film by Tuca Siqueira.

Fernanda Abreu is a producer. With Feever Filmes, she brought to life the transmedia project híbridos.cc, which includes the feature-length documentary HÍBRIDOS, OS ESPÍRITOS DO BRASIL (IDFA, CPH:DOX. 42º MOSTRA DE SP, MoMA). Her second feature film is the brazilian episode of  the  Netflix Original series MY LOVE: 6 STORIES OF TRUE LOVE.

Andrea Capella is the cinematographer for the feature films RESSACA, by Bruno Vianna, A FUGA DA MULHER GORILA and A ALEGRIA, by Felipe Bragança and Marina Meliande, CLAUN, by Felipe Bragança, CORPO ELÉTRICO, by Marcelo Caetano, and GUERRA DE ALGODÕES, by Marília Hughes and Cláudio Marques.

Ana Paula Cardoso is the art director for the feature films DESLEMBRO, by Flavia Castro, A FEBRE, by Maya Da-Rin, BREVE MIRAGEM DE SOL, by Eryk Rocha, AOS NOSSOS FILHOS, by Maria de Medeiros, GABRIEL E A MONTANHA, by Fellipe Barbosa, PENDULAR, by Julia Murat, CASA GRANDE, by Fellipe Barbosa, ASPIRANTES, by Ives Rosenfeld, AVANTI POPOLO, by Michael Wahrmann, and more.

LOOK & FEEL

The movie opens with a light and sunny feel, revealing the beautiful mountains of Lumiar. As with Paula, the spectator will be introduced to a quiet landscape, with the promise of pleasant moments away from the big neurotic city. Fixed shots and soft camera movements will invite the spectator to take a stroll at Marcelo and Luciana’s rustic country house.

Slightly saturated colors will bring out the comical aspect of the movie early into it. Dawn will come along to dial back the colors, the light, and the fun that Paula, the guest, felt in that place. As night falls and more intense conflicts arise, the camera will get closer to the characters, causing the spectator to feel how uncomfortable these wicked romantic relationships are. Much like the characters, the scenery also shows flaws, imperfections, and becomes claustrophobic.

In and out of filed are connected by sound. Despite the night’s frightening noises, the house is silent. Whoever is in it can hear what is said outside, in the garden, and vice-versa. The sounds of nature and even of objects used on screen become more evident as the tension rises.

The House

A rustic country house in the village of Boa Esperança, located in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro state. The house is surrounded by mountains, with no neighbors in sight. However simple, the house has been lovingly decorated by Luciana with vintage furniture and objects created by local artists. The bathroom is simple and clean, but it is also a refuge for frogs.

The Waterfall

Poço do Coronel (The Colonel’s Waterhole), a natural pool with a slide that makes for the ideal opportunity to show off for Paula.

The Lookout

The backdrop for an open and liberating conversation between Paula and Fabiana. An isolated spot, ideal for revealing secrets.

Director’s Motivation – Clara Linhart

My goal is to trigger some reflection about how we position ourselves within relationships. Those might be places that deprive us from our power, our light, our self-esteem, but still, we can’t remove ourselves from those places. How many couples, regardless of gender, have for years lived together in situations like this?

In 2010, I directed a short movie by the same name, an adaptation of the first act in Renata Mizrahi’s theater play. For the feature film, we added new characters, Cláudio and Fabiana, and more extreme situations. With the actors, I want to build interesting, complex, lovable, and hateful characters. I want the spectators to recognize themselves in these characters or in the situations they experience. I want people to both laugh and cringe because they can relate. I want to use the camera as a microscope capable of visualizing looks, gestures, and whispers that denote desires, fears, and insecurities. I am not interested in portraying women as victims and men as monsters, but in identifying complementary neuroses that are common to so many couples. I want to play with the spectator’s senses by shifting the perspectives in the scenery and in nature. The surrounding nature goes from freeing to oppressing. As the plot unfolds, the movie becomes dark and harrowing, shown both in cinematography and art direction.

Author’s Motivation – Renata Mizrahi

When I wrote “The Frogs”, I was developing research on emotional attachment for a theater play, following a request from a friend who had been living in an abusive marriage—one of those in which, even though she knew the right thing to do was to split up, she simply couldn’t. I went in search of content and attended meeting groups like MADA (Mulheres que Amam Demais, literally translated as Women who Love Too Much). I talked to several people, but I didn’t really know where to begin. That is, until my own relationship came to an end, and I decided to accept a friend’s invitation to spend the weekend at this house in the mountains and attend a barbecue with other guests. I thought that would be the perfect way to unwind and meet new people on my first weekend as a newly single woman. But, when I arrived at his place, I only found him and a woman who seemed to be his girlfriend. He had forgotten to tell me the barbecue had been cancelled. I tried to relax and show my friend’s girlfriend that I was not there because of him, but for myself, to enjoy some time in nature and forget a little bit about my pain from the recent break-up. But I soon realized their relationship was a bit odd, not completely official, considering my friend did not try to hide it when he hit on me. I met another couple there, people who initially seemed very friendly, but I soon realized they were in a deeply jealous and possessive relationship. Later that night, by the fire, I heard from both women about how unhappy they were—one had the uncertainty of an unofficial relationship, and the other had no room for herself in her relationship. However unhappy, none of them seemed to be able to walk out of their respective situations. I felt good about being on my own, in no close range to a toxic relationship. When I returned home, I wrote “The Frogs”, a metaphor to the frogs that insisted on inhabiting the bathroom, the frogs that would always return, even if forcefully removed from their places in the bathroom. A metaphor to these comings and goings that are inherent to complex relationships. Also, in Brazil, there is a common expression meant to refer to situations in which something hurtful is said to someone or happens to someone, and yet they just carry on—and that is “to swallow a frog”, literally translated. I finished writing it and showed it to the friend who had hired me, but she was so deep into her own narrative, that she was unable to deal with the screenplay. So, I put it together myself, and it was acclaimed by spectators and critics. The last season ran in December 2019, at Teatro Maison de France, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The process of adapting it for the big screen was a fruitful and powerful challenge, requiring dozens of treatments, script doctoring by Miguel Machalski and several adjustments by Clara Linhart. Not only is this topic more and more prominent, it’s also very important for me, as a woman in screen writing and a solo mother, to tell this story with which both men and women can identify, because there can be some of us in each and every character—to some measure and across different times in our lives.

Producer’s Motivation – Fernanda Abreu

I am personally deeply interested in women’s stories. I discovered filmmaking alongside many of my personal discoveries, and the first fiction feature-length movie script I ever read, at 18 years old, was Thelma and Louise, included in a book by Syd Field. Since then, my interest in women in film, on and off screen, has been growing as I became familiar with the works of Chantal Akerman, Agnès Varda, Claire Denis, and Naomi Kawase. This sparked my idea to position myself in the film market as a producer focused on female narratives. When Clara presented me with the first version of the script for OS SAPOS, it established a dialogue with my experience in such a natural way that, when I realized it, I was already involved with all five characters and interested in producing this existentialist story, so female, so real. Working in filmmaking, the conversation with other professionals in the area is personally and professionally nurturing. It’s important to note that, in 2021, this conversation is even dearer to us, because it is fundamental to think about partnerships and bonds to distribute this movie during this new reality imposed by COVID-19.

CONTACT

GAMAROSA FILMES
Clara Linhart – Director and productor
claralinhart@gmail.com

FEEVER FILMES
Fernanda Abreu – Productor
abreufernanda@feeverfilmes.com

LIVRES FILMES
Carla Osório – Distributor
carlaosorio1@gmail.com
+55 21 98348-0024