ABOUT THE FILM




This is a film about elections. But there is no such thing as a film about elections in the abstract. There can only exist a film about a place, a person, a handful of individuals or countless living creatures experiencing elections, with all their diverse reasons, passions, and entanglements. This is how the particular becomes universal, and the general finds its ground. In this sense, this is a film about elections.
Território unfolds through an ethnographic lens, focusing on Geraldo, a left-wing candidate for São Paulo's City Council in the 2024 municipal election. A longtime activist within the Labour Party, Geraldo faces the challenge of adapting to modern campaign strategies, winning over evangelical voters, and confronting the rise of the extreme right in his community in the southern part of the city.
Departing from the traditional "hero’s journey," this is a narrative about politics often unseen: the ordinary relationships and events that happen on the margins of the city and help shape politics more broadly – even if they don't necessarily make good newspaper headlines. It vividly portrays how a campaign is built through interaction with voters, how local and national politics intertwine, and how new political approaches coexist with old ones. It explores how people experience politics – an experience that can both inspire and repulse, leave a sense of emptiness, and offer fulfillment.
The film is a portrayal of contemporary urban Brazil and its relationship with democracy.
It is funded by the Urban Studies Foundation Knowledge Mobilization Awards.