Hard Labor

Young housewife Helena has always dreamed of opening her own business. So when a fully-furnished vacant space opens up, she decides to finally fulfill this dream by opening a neighborhood grocery store. But on the same day she signs the lease to the shop, her husband Otávio is suddenly fired from his job as an insurance executive, leaving Helena to support her husband and daughter alone. The role reversal at home threatens to overturn the established structure of her domestic universe and ultimately begins to affect her personal relationship with her family. As pressure surmounts, Helena's temper flares and catapults her into a psychological breakdown. When the brick walls of her building start to crumble, groceries disappear, and a mysterious black substance begins creeping through the tiles of her floor, HARD LABOR takes a dark and suspenseful turn. Is it supernatural or is it the manifestation of Helena's paranoia and disintegrating psyche? A subtle neo-noir thriller wrapped in unconventional horror elements, HARD LABOR is a disturbing approach to an otherwise common crisis of a middle class family struggling to make it in a capitalist society. (In Portuguese with subtitles) – M.M.