The Seasons

a film by

Portugal, France, Spain, Austria | 82' | 08/2025 | hybrid

Weaving accounts of rural workers and fieldnotes of a couple of archaeologists, amateur footage and scientific drawings, legends, poems and songs, The Seasons is a journey through the real history and the tales of a region in southern Portugal, Alentejo, and a portrait of the people who have lived there.

“Fazendeiro uses cinema as an instrument for excavating the various layers of history contained within any given landscape. A complex work of human geography”

Square Eyes - TIFF50_OfficialSelection_2025_black

Square Eyes - International Competition - Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival - 2025

“Fazendeiro uses cinema as an instrument for excavating the various layers of history contained within any given landscape. A complex work of human geography”

Crew Festivals Press materials Press quotes

Maureen Fazendeiro

Biography

Maureen Fazendeiro (1989) is French and lives in Lisbon. Her films have been screened at FID, TIFF, Director’s Fortnight, NYFF, Cinéma du Réel and Jeonju, among other festivals, and in cinematheques and museums. She divides her time between solo projects and collaborations with Miguel Gomes as screenwriter and casting director.

Filmography

• Motu Maeva / 2014 / 42 min / Documentary
• Black Sun / 2019 / 7 min / Experimental
• The Tsugua Diaries / co-directed with Miguel Gomes / 2021 / 102min / Fiction
• Les Habitants / 2025 / 42 min / Documentary

Square Eyes - copyright: Marianne Andrea Borowiec — copyright: Marianne Andrea Borowiec

Crew

Director: Maureen Fazendeiro
Screenplay: Maureen Fazendeiro
Producer: O Som E A Fúria: Luís Urbano, Sandro Aguilar
Norte Productions: Valentina Novati
Filmika Galaika: Beli Martínez
Nabis Filmgroup: Lukas Valenta Rinner
Production manager: Catarina Alves, Vasco Costa
Cinematography: Robin Fresson, Marta Simões
Editing: Telmo Churro,
Sound: Luca Rullo, Xavi Souto, Vasco Pimentel
Sound editing: Miguel Martins
Sound mixing: Miguel Martins
Music: Luís J Martins
Art director: Melania Freire
Line-producer: Pierre-Emmanuel Finzi
Voice: Gerti Drassl, Michaela Kaspar, Raphael von Bargen, Toni Slama, António Abel, Simão Romeu
Cast: Simão Ramalho, Cláudio Da Silva, Ana Potra, Manuel Leitão, António Sozinho

Festivals

Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland (6 – 16 August, 2025)
Concorso Internazionale Won: Boccalino D’Oro Award for Best Contribution to Cinematic Language
Toronto International Film Festival, Canada (4 – 14 September, 2025)
Wavelengths
Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, Romania (22 – 26 September, 2025)
International Feature Film Competition
Filmfest Hamburg, Germany (25 September – 4 October, 2025)
Vitrina Section
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan (9 – 16 October, 2025)
International Competition
Underdox, Germany (9 – 15 October, 2025)
Official Selection
Lima Alterna Festival Internacional de Cine, Peru (10 – 19 October, 2025)
Iberoamerican Competition
La Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festival, France (13 – 19 October, 2025)
International Competition
São Paulo International Film Festival, Brazil (16 – 30 October, 2025)
New Filmmakers Competition
Viennale, Austria (16 – 28 October, 2025)
Official Selection
Docslisboa International Film Festival (16 – 16 October 2025)
Portuguese competition
Seminci – Valladolid International Film Festival (28 October 2025)
“Tiempo de História” competition
European Film Forum SCANORAMA, Lithuania (6 – 23 November, 2025)
Crossing Europe section

Password

Press materials

EPK: Click here

Stills & directors photos: Click here

Dialogue list English and original: Click here

Embeddable trailer: Vimeo & Youtube

Downloadable excerpts & trailer: Click here

SOCIAL MEDIA:
@maureenfazendeiro
@osomeafuria.filmes
@nabisfilmgroup
@filmikagalaika
@nortedistribution

Press quotes

“cinema can do unique wonders by seamlessly weaving together reality and myth through editing”
“Fazendeiro’s visual essay blends everything, past and present, flora and fauna, the surface and the underground, the violence and the beauty, in a smooth and simple manner that makes it all the more insightful and something to cherish.”
Review: Erwan Desbois – International Cinephile Society

“Fazendeiro uses cinema as an instrument for excavating the various layers of history contained within any given landscape. A complex work of human geography”
Review: Michael Sicinski – In Review Online

“such cinema is less a film about the Alentejo and more a film that is the Alentejo itself, with its long pauses, its stories told in various ways, its memory preserved not in books but in the mouths of the people and the patience of time. It is a cinema of collection and listening, a gesture of preservation that understands that the countryside is not just land to be cultivated, but the soil upon which our identity is based.”
Review: Spoiler Movies

“Amidst the pessimism and defeatism of current times, Fazendeiro showing Alentejo and the Castelo Velho excavation site as outposts of beauty and possibility is endearing.”
Review: David Katz – Cineuropa

“a delightful and enlightening ethnographic portrait of the Alentejo”
“an inventive feature debut”
Review: Meredith Taylor – Filmuforia

“acoustic elements blend with the images and enhance the immersive atmosphere of Maureen Fazendeiro’s nostalgic landscape portraits”
“enigmatic atmosphere and tactile sensuality”
Review: Lida Bach – Moviebreak

” Fazendeiro’s perspective captures this region from a unique and selfless perspective; as the dolmen’s are being preserved, she is preserving the essence of Alentejo, Portugal.”
Review: Michael Granados – Film Fest Report