The Salamander.
Desire, identity and the cost of reinvention.
Writer & Director · Debut feature
Salamandra / La Salamandre
World premiere: Venice Critics’ Week, 2021
Selected for the São Paulo International Film Festival
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After years spent caring for her father, Catherine travels from France to Recife and begins an unexpected relationship with Gil, a younger Brazilian man. Their attraction offers the possibility of another life. As intimacy becomes entangled with money, dependence and ambition, the search for freedom takes a dangerous turn.
International co-production
N Filmes (Brazil), Cinenovo and High Sea Production (France), San Cinema (Germany), Scope Pictures (Belgium), Nois Ltd (United Kingdom) and Tribus P Films.
Funding & broadcast partners
Canal+, Telecine, Canal Brasil and Globoplay.
Selected credits
Cast: Marina Foïs, Maicon Rodrigues, Anna Mouglalis, Bruno Garcia, Allan Souza Lima, Suzy Lopes and Buda Lira.
Based on La Salamandre by Jean-Christophe Rufin.
Screenplay: Alex Carvalho, with Thomas Bidegain and Alix Delaporte.
Cinematography: Josée Deshaies.
Editing: Joana Collier and Agnieszka Liggett.
Sound: Edson Secco.
Production design: Juliana Lobo.
A personal point of view
I adapted Jean-Christophe Rufin’s novel through my own relationship with Recife, the city where I grew up. I wanted to question the story’s European perspective and give both characters emotional complexity. Desire, class and belonging meet inside a relationship in which each person can be vulnerable, complicit and capable of exploiting the other.
Actors at the centre
Directing Marina Foïs and Maicon Rodrigues, alongside Anna Mouglalis and a Brazilian ensemble, meant placing the contradictions of Catherine and Gil at the heart of the film. Her need to begin again meets his desire for a different future. Their connection carries tenderness, attraction and calculation, allowing the audience’s understanding of each character to shift.
A transformation across a feature
Catherine’s search for freedom drives the narrative towards an irreversible choice. Across the film, the balance between the lovers changes as money, family and the social divisions of Recife enter their intimacy. The story moves from an unexpected romance towards psychological danger, holding questions of identity and mutual dependence open.