And then the frog became a bear … a golden bearLeonor Teles, or the story of a young filmmaker who was awarded in Berlin

Abstract

ABSTRACT Rhoma Acans and Batrachian’s Ballad are the only two short feature films directed by Leonor Teles. In 2018, she premiers Terra Franca in Festival Cinema du Réel, in Paris. Nevertheless, at the age of 23 she was already the youngest filmmaker to be awarded in Berlin. Rejecting labels and the burden of a representation, she devotes her attention in films to a community to which she does not belong, but which is part of her identity. Despite her Romany paternal ancestry, Leonor Teles didn't receive a gypsy education, but her documentary curiosity made her question what her life would have been if her mother had also been a gypsy, debating gender and feminist issues. On the other hand, a dissertation around two films, one made in an academic context, and the other in a premature stage of her career, is an attempt of keeping the balance between the expectations that the awards are creating and the destructive criticism towards such a young artist. In structural terms, after a contextual approach, we will try to analyse her second film in a dialogue between the issues and the treatment of memory as the product of an inherent and artistic subjectivity.