(****) 

 “I am under a death threat… it’s a dangerous situation.”

Marcelo (Wagner Moura, Narcos), a tec research scientist at a university, and all the people he loves, could lose their lives. During Brazil’s infamous military dictatorship in 1977, he and throngs of others are on the run. Fleeing from those who’d kill them to silence them. His journey takes him back to the city of Recife, Brazil’s fourth largest metro area, set in the state of Pernambuco, in the Northeast region on the Atlantic Ocean. This is where Marcelo seeks refuge and reunites with his young son Fernando and his father-in-law (Carlos Francisco), who runs a movie theater. He will live a life underground with others who seek fake IDs, ways to hide, deflect danger and escape.  

Kleber Mendonça Filho writes and directs this historical political/thriller that blends genres and defies expectations. His extremely thoughtful and intelligent script drifts in and out of time periods. It follows Marcelo in a first-person narrative. Then without explanation, switches to a third-person kind of storytelling that relegates the lead character to history, newspaper headlines and photos in a twist that will leave viewers scratching their heads. Not in confusion, but in sheer amazement that a filmmaker could weave a rich tale this innovatively. The attention to detail, characters, their progressions and interactions grow increasingly mind blowing. Right up until the end of this 2h 36m saga. An epic that starts with one of the most engaging initial scenes ever imagined.  

Marcelo drives his canary-yellow Volkswagen Beetle up to a deserted gas station. Vegetation grows across the street, but here the land is brown and barren. While he waits for the seemingly lost and forgotten attendant, he notices something under a flattened-out carboard box, just feet away. He takes a closer look, and he realizes it’s a dead body rotting in the sun barely covered up. 

Astonished, he asks the unconcerned station manager what’s going on. He’s told that the body has been there for days and the police have yet to arrive and take it away. Marcelo is perplexed. Shortly after, two cops show up. Instead of chronicling, investigating and deposing of the body, they interrogate Marcelo like he did it. But even that’s a ruse. Their intention is to shake him down for money. Money he’d better give them if he wants to drive off. And so, it goes in these strange times.

In just a few minutes, Filho creatively shows the climate of a military regime where those who are supposed to enforce the laws break them for their own benefit in the most mundane, everyday ways. That callousness, depraved indifference and scheming shadows the protagonist everywhere he goes. Always looking over his shoulder for a hitman who’ll shoot him, a knifer who might stab him and an assailant who could kill the ones he loves. Or at least the ones who are left.  

As this story unfolds in the most cryptic way, viewers will be astonished at how the footage captures the always present and always parching Brazilian sun as it bears down on the people of Recife. Locals who, among the crime and blistering heat, celebrate Carnival, fill the street markets, go to the cinema to watch films like Jaws and live life regardless of the dangers that lurk. That evocative ‘70s visual feed can be credited to the wondrous cinematography by Evgenia Alexandrova, the use of Panavision anamorphic lenses and vintage camera equipment that aptly reproduce the visual style of the era. 

As do the sets (production designer Thales Junqueira) and clothes (costume designer Rita Azevedo), even when they’re being stripped off for a love scene. The music (Mateus Alves, Tomaz Alves Souza) caresses all that needs a bit of love and adds drama to cloak and dagger chase scenes that eschew cheesy effects. They’re cat and mouse scenes, where the felines are killers and the rodents are cornered people. The parade of eye candy includes colorful Portuguese colonial and Baroque buildings, varied geography and the multi-hued faces of the people of Indigenous, African and European origin. A slow but determined rhythm by editors Matheus Farias and Eduardo Serrano moves you along. This production team is as strong as the director’s vision. 

Filho’s talent is huge. He pulls the most natural performances from the entire cast, choreographs the killings like a puppet master and makes every-day occurrences feel far more monumental than just daily routines. Ever wonder what it would be like to live under the thumb of a regime with no conscience? Where militia, police and hoodlums collaborate? That’s on full display here and done with a grandness for storytelling that’s on par with a great Martin Scorsese film. In fact, this period piece has the same gravitas as that director’s The Irishman.  

Moura plays the everyman who’s just one step ahead of death like the roach no one could kill. He then organically becomes the sensitive dad to a son he doesn’t know well, a sexy lover to a new acquittance and the needy son-in-law being sheltered by a father-in-law who risks everything to shield him.  

Marcelo’s plight won’t go unnoticed. Not in this far-reaching film. He won’t be just one more statistic. Neither will all the rest who lived under death threats during Brazil’s military regime. Take this as a warning. Those who’re victimized and those who perpetrate evil will be revealed or exposed. That’s what Kleber Mendonça Filho does with his masterpiece. He brings what’s been kept in the dark out into the light.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nNAVGX8n7w
Photos courtesy of the Toronto International Film Festival 
For more information about the Toronto International Film Festival go to https://tiff.net/. 
Visit Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.