The Portuguese short film, A Febre do Cão Bravo (Mad Dog Fever), was produced by brothers, Luciano and André Moniz Vieira, and was released in 2023, however, unfortunately didn’t get much attention. I recently scored a digital copy (thank you André) and wrote a brief review:
The dialogue was entirely in Portuguese, which I can grasp a lot of the phrases, but it was helpful to have English subtitles to follow along.
That being said, it was a great production. The lighting was superb in the outdoor settings, especially at the beginning with the broken down car at night. I appreciated the consistency of the sweat-stained shirt throughout the course of events and really enjoyed the opening credits.
It was very well done with excellent sound mixing, with the only exception being some echoed audio from the actors in the apartment scenes (specifically the sisters eating cereal). I noticed the camera was stationed in most shots which I found to work well for the story in its bottled settings, taking place within a day, while the camera displayed stress when it was needed by capturing shaky, moving shots, for example when the father gets irate and goes to get their dog after taking a shower. At that point in the film, there were many questions still to be answered, so following along their anger added some suspense to what was coming in the next scenes.
The players were great. The alcoholic, divorced father was well acted and very believable. Their performance highlighted a hard transition when a man is losing everything they have and their beloved dog. It was also a nice surprise to also recognize Sandra Cardoso (from the A Biqueira YouTube channel) and how stern of a mother she can be! I felt her rigidity and hardheadedness when she was preparing the chicken and speaking firmly with Ariana. The sound mixing in that scene was very good. The children in the family were intriguing, however I wanted to know more about them, like how the older daughter feels being perceived as a mistake yet a high-performing doctor-to-be or how did the son get to be so aloof and cool in such a vociferous environment?
All in all, Mad Dog Fever was top notch production! Great shots, filming, lighting, editing, and sound mixing with the exception of some scenes sounding askew. The actors performed well and my only criticism would be the character development to support the storytelling. The ending could have been built up with some more interactions between the siblings and their mother. There was some great work put into this film and you can clearly see that these promising, young filmmakers have the tools to someday make a full feature!
Read more about the film on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26682970/
A Febre do Cão Bravo (Mad Dog Fever)
The story of a dog who is sick of human noise, a stepson who takes his stepmother’s side, a stepdaughter who seems like the biological child of her stepfather, a young woman who dreams about her departure. It’s a human portrayal of a communal loneliness, a zero-degree fever, a bark without echo.
‣ ᴘʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴛɪᴏɴ sᴛᴜᴅɪᴏs • Fractal • Fita – Som e Imagem • Popsec Film Studio
‣ ᴡʀɪᴛᴛᴇɴ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅɪʀᴇᴄᴛᴇᴅ • Luciano Moniz
‣ ᴘʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴇʀs • Luísa Aguiar • Carolina Caldeira • Ricardo Vieira • Luciano Moniz • André Moniz Vieira
‣ ᴀssᴏᴄɪᴀᴛᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴇʀs • Jeff Boehlert • Manuel de Caires • Francisco Côrte • Luís Diniz • Maria Gonçalves • Jeff de Gouveia • John Mcfadden • Jaki Nunez • Tânia Ornelas • Marlene Ribeiro • Charles Richard • Dexter Richard • Javier Santos • Carlos Sousa • Milica Stanisic
‣ ᴅɪʀᴇᴄᴛᴏʀ ᴏғ ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏɢʀᴀᴘʜʏ • André Moniz Vieira
‣ ᴇᴅɪᴛɪɴɢ ᴀɴᴅ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀ ɢʀᴀᴅɪɴɢ • André Moniz Vieira
‣ sᴏᴜɴᴅ ᴇᴅɪᴛɪɴɢ, ғᴏʟᴇʏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴍɪxɪɴɢ • Alex Gonçalves
‣ ᴄᴀsᴛ • Carolina Andrade • Alejandro Calanche • Sandra Cardoso • Pedro Monteiro • Pedro Pisco • Maria Verga • Isaías Viveiros
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