Something has moved in Brazilian cinema in recent years, on the back of its social problems and political changes: since 2015,
A Second Mother
and
Mother There is Only One,
by Anna Muylaert;
Doña Clara (Aquarius),
by Kleber Mendonça Filho; the documentaries
Hotel Cambridge,
by Eliane Caffé, and
Cinema Novo,
by Eryk Rocha;
Like Our Parents,
by Laís Bodanzky;
Always Together (Benzinho)
,
by Gustavo Pizzi;
The song of the jungle
,
by Renée Nader Messora and João Salaviza, and now it comes to us with a little delay
Three summers,
by Sandra Kogut when we have the information.
Approaches to the social reality of the country, to the struggle between those above and below, the difficulties of the working class, and the hesitations and moral falls of the bourgeoisie.
A good part of them, directed by women, and the majority, carried out by female characters.
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The heartbeat of occupation
Always the class struggle
As also happened to
A second mother, Like our parents and Always together, Three summers
is a work that starts out hesitantly but that gradually settles as the story and the characters overcome the unbalanced modes of filming. Kogut, the director, is uncomfortable in the group sequences of the first half hour, with innumerable (and ugly) medium shots, when what dominates is the conversation in the massive family celebration, almost in the manner of the Mexican
New order,
although with a much more modest artistic expressiveness. Moments in which the minority white elite does not stop pouring its condescension, if not its arrogance, with the service of the house, belonging to the majority black community.
However, after the arrival of the police and the arrest of the owners, accused of corruption, the film stands out. Without the presence of the upper class in the summer mansion, those hitherto subjected become dominators of home and luxury (the parallels with the Korean
Parasites,
from the same year, are evident), and, as in the most interesting and allegorical Spanish film
The faithful servants
(Francesc Betriu, 1980), the situation threatens to spiral into a place where economic liberalism tyrannizes demands and social justice.
Premiered at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival, and later awarded in Malaga with the Critics' Award and for the best actress (Regina Casé, who we already enjoyed in
A Second Mother), Tres veranos
finally achieves what most of its predecessors cinematographic: turning the film's own gaze into the spontaneous and fierce gaze of a brave woman;
acidic, critical, seductive and in no way Manichean.
THREE SUMMERS
Direction: Sandra Kogut.
Performers: Regina Casé, Jéssica Ellen, Gisele Fróes, Rogério Fróes.
Genre: drama.
Brazil, 2019.
Duration: 94 minutes.