Juliana Magalhães, director of “When I said goodbye I thought I was gone” (Cachoeira do Pajeú and São Paulo, 2024), selected for the Minas Gerais Competition.
The film portrays the backlands of Minas Gerais, a location rarely seen in commercial cinema, and denounces the illnesses of women living in Cachoeira do Pajeú. The concern with this issue seems strongly related, according to the synopsis, to an “insider’s perspective.” Therefore, how do you expect the audience, supposedly unfamiliar with this context, to be affected by the issues represented on screen? I think it’s a film that makes us reflect on how “a cradle,” a place “of birth,” can make us ill simply by being born there. I see the backlands of Minas Gerais as a person: it’s drought in its broadest and deepest sense, and this drought isn’t just reflected in the physical environment. It’s a drought that reflects on people, on their skin, on their marks, and on their life trajectories. It’s a truly existential issue. I think that’s what I’ve always wanted to show: the backlands of Minas Gerais are a person.