Interview: Nara Normande & Tião – Sem Coração (Heartless)

For their feature debut collaboration, Brazilian filmmakers Nara Normande and Tião returned to the heart of Guaxuma, the beachside setting in Alagoas, for their film Heartless (Sem Coração). This region, one of Brazil’s most impoverished states, is a microcosm that blends elements of violence and beauty, reality and fantasy. It was also the very location where they created the universe in their award-winning short film, bearing the same title, almost a decade ago. However, what lured them back to this place were its people.

This portrait of youth was selected for the 2023 Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti section. I had the opportunity to sit down with both filmmakers where we discussed how they developed the different characters including the titular Heartless (played by Eduarda Samara), how they embedded various working themes in the overall text and touched upon their working methodology.