My Grandmother Trelott Review Following A Lost Family History From Mozambique To Portugal

Catarina Ruivos sprawling documentary trails her late relation back to the former colony, following the letters she wrote home in the 1940s and 50s At nearly three hours, Catarina Ruivos sprawling documentary seeks to halt the march of death. When her grandmother Jlia died, she left behind a treasure trove of letters, written between 1946 and 1957 when she was living in Mozambique, then under Portuguese colonial rule. Read out by actor Rita Duro, this correspondence captures the hopes and dreams of a young woman, newly married and adapting to a foreign land. The voiceover is paired with Ruivos footage of present-day, independent Mozambique, images that breathe a second life into these messages from the past. The juxtaposition between Jlias writings and the Mozambican cityscapes recalls , in which Akerman combined her narration of her mothers letters with languid shots of New York City to reveal the intricacies of the mother-daughter relationship and the rhythm of urban living. My Grandmother Trelott doesnt quite achieve such cinematic alchemy. Jlias letters, while seemingly benevolent, betray a colonial gaze that erases the hardships endured by the local population a fact acknowledged by Ruivo in an artists statement. The way Mozambique is framed quotidian scenes full of anonymous faces appears merely illustrative it does little to complicate or push against Jlias problematised point of view.