Brazilian Short Films

Short film is usually the perfect medium for experimental storytelling, innovative ideas and different perspectives. This year’s shorts in the ¨Premiere Brasil” present well-experienced as well as debut directors, in a diverse yet rather cautiously selected competition. The most common topics such as love, family conflicts and adolescence dominate the stories, but the wheel doesn’t have to be reinvented as long as the angle is original and the story catchy.

It is the love stories in the selection which are the most engaging. O teu sorriso (Bliss) by Pedro Freire - whose films have been screened at festivals in Oberhausen, Torino and Cinéma du Réel, is about an elderly couple who are mad about each other, happily spending all day together in bed. The naturalistic aesthetics and approach to the characters create an intimate atmosphere, giving a detailed portrayal of everyday interaction: eating, laughing, talking – things people do and say when in love. Intriguing in its representation of love and sexuality of people in their 60s and 70s, it reminds one of the award-winning feature Wolke 9 by Andreas Dresen. It would seem that romance at later stages of life is not a cinematic taboo anymore. Why the short is screened out of competition seems strange, as it is one of the strongest directorial works in the programme and was also shown at Venice this year.

But what if a middle-aged couple is going through a crisis? In Sildenafil by advertising and TV-director Clovis Mello, the marital bed is the location of an unequal conflict, in which a couple confronts each other with their opposing sexual expectations in a lifelong relationship. Amid wants to make love but her hypochondriac husband Horatio refuses to try Viagra. This is the starting point of an exhausting argument: she annoys him with her vulgar and cynical comments, whereas he acts like he is over and done with the whole thing. The dynamic dialogues, and not least a desperate and yet comical sex scene, make this short a must-see of the competition.

A fateful end-of-love story is told in DoceAMARgo (BitterSweetLove) by Rafael Primot, who is actor, writer and director. Caught bruised in the car after an accident, this young couple’s last conversation alternates between panic attacks, joking and swearing devotion to one another. The mysterious cause of the car accident and the unforeseeable ending keep the viewer tense. Good lighting and cinematography, elaborated costumes and make-up also make this short appealing in a formal way.

The presented works are of varying quality in directing and storytelling, and a Brazilian handwriting is hardly to be discovered. However the very diversity of the shorts in the selection are promising and will surely win over audiences.

Zsuzsanna Kiràly