Guaxuma

“I was born on a beach.” These are the opening words of an intriguing autobiographical narrative, in which the young filmmaker Nara Normande returns to her childhood in Guaxuma, a district in the city of Maceió, Brazil. Her parents were part of a wave of hippies who came from all over Brazil to this coastal city in the northeast.

Her childhood in Guaxuma was happy and carefree: there were parties on the beach every week, and adventurous secret trips to deserted hotels. At the beach she made a deep and eternal friendship and felt free. But later came sadness, separation and death.

The melancholy tone of Normande’s voice and the remarkable combination of animation techniques transport us into the world of her memories. She builds houses and dreams out of grains of sand, and shows photos of her parents in happier times. She and her friend run together as sand dolls along the beach, while a flock of origami birds fly towards the horizon.