The story concerns a young man living at home, André, whose ideas are radically different from those of his farmer father. The father advocates order and restraint, which enhance his own power under the guise of family love. The son seeks freedom and pleasure, exemplified in his passion for his sister Ana. When André moves to a seedy boarding house, his older brother Pedro, is asked by their mother to bring him back. His return, however, will shatter the family's insular life.
Cast
Selton Mello - André
*Pablo César Câncio - young André
*Luiz Fernando Carvalho - André voice
Raul Cortez - Father
Juliana Carneiro da Cunha - Mother
Simone Spoladore - Ana
Leonardo Medeiros - Pedro
Caio Blat - Lula
Denise Del Vecchio - prostitute
Samir Muci Alcici Júnior
Leda Samara Antunes
Felipe Abreu Salomão
Raphaela Borges David
Production
Aiming to maintain the connection with the poetic prose of Raduan Nassar's book, Luiz Fernando Carvalho elected to film without a defined script, based entirely on the actors' improvisations on the theme. This involved intensive coaching of the cast, secluded on a farm for four months. The film's creation and production process was discussed in the book About To the Left of The Father, in which the director is interviewed by José Carlos Avellar, Geraldo Sarno, Miguel Pereira, Ivana Bentes, Arnaldo Carrilho and Liliane Heynemann, launched in Portuguese, English and French by the publisher :pt:Ateliê Editorial|Ateliê Editorial.
Reception
It was a success with the critics and the public, reaching 300,000 viewers with just two exhibition locations, one in Rio de Janeiro and the other in São Paulo.
Critical response
It is considered one of the 100 best Brazilian films of all time, according to the Brazilian Film Critics Association. In the opinion of writer and psychoanalyst Renato Tardivo, author of Porvir que vem antes de tudo – literatura e cinema em Lavoura Arcaica, the film is one of the most important works of Brazilian cinema “of all times”. The critic Carlos Alberto de Mattos described it as the first work of art of the Brazilian cinema in the 21st century. The film was acclaimed by the critics of various countries and, according to the French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, To the Left of the Father is a "barbarous poem verging on hallucination, of extraordinary power".
