World film project: Brazil
Jan. 3rd, 2020 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livSo we got really stalled on Indonesia, because we could not find a single film made in Indonesia available either on DVD that could be purchased here, or streaming services we have access to. Last night we were tired and wanted to curl up with a film, but also didn't have much energy for researching or deciding. So we decided to move to the next in the list, but I remembered the next biggest country as being Brazil when actually it should have been Pakistan. We found some random list of Brazilian films available on streaming services, recommended by a blogger who suggested it might be helpful for people practising their Portuguese.
After eliminating films that sounded like they were mainly about violence, or 'young girls tragically forced into prostitution', and a couple we couldn't straightforwardly find, we settled on Jonas (2015, directed Lô Politi). We were somewhat misled by the summary, which was about childhood friends reconnecting and getting into an out-of-control situation where they have to hide inside a carnival whale.jack was expecting some kind of comic hijinks – I knew it was going to be a drama but was thrown by the actual plot being about a violent, drug and murder-fuelled kidnapping rather than impulsive teenagers getting into a weird situation.
Jonas is a good film, in that it's well acted and beautifully shot. But the plot is just horrible. The title character's "bad decisions" consist of drinking a bottle of vodka, spying on the woman he fancies, flying into a rage when he sees her with another man, getting into a fight where her lover is accidentally killed, and dealing with this situation by drugging her, kidnapping her and tying her up inside the whale float. I would be somewhat ok with this except that the whole framing is entirely sympathetic to Jonas, explicitly connecting him to the Biblical prophet and implicitly to Jesus.
And there's a sex scene, shot as the typical romantic soft-focus high point when the two young lovers who are meant to be together actually get it on for the first time. Which sits incredibly badly with the context of Branca being imprisoned in the whale and afraid for her life, and Jonas becoming increasingly violent and unhinged until suddenly, violin music and kissing. I don't think I would have liked it better with more emphasis on the lack of consent, but framing it as as a beautiful romantic connection was really gross. The whole film is set up as a serious, arty epic; it doesn't seem on the surface to be fanservice for people who are into bondage and dubcon.
Jonas is a victim in that he's being pressured and violently threatened by a drug gang, and looked down on by Branca's rich relatives, and his father doesn't treat him very well, and so on. And his killing of the drug dealer who is in a relationship with Branca is very clearly an accident. But it feels very weird for him to be rewarded for his execrable behaviour by Branca realizing she loves him after all. I think the final scene is an explicit homage to Bladerunner, with Jonas standing in a Christ-like pose as ash and tears fall on his face. And ok, Roy Batty is a morally ambiguous character, but Jonas does nothing admirable and a number of really awful things.
The best thing about the film is Luan Marques' stand-out performance as Jonas' little brother Jander. Jander is consistently the voice of reason, but he's also a confused small child with limited power to act. He trusts his big brother and would do anything for him, but he has a lot of reasonable moral doubts about kidnapping, and when he finds out that Jonas has killed someone he realizes that things have gone further than just helping his brother in a tricky situation, and involves the authorities.
I think the conclusion is that in future we should take more care in choosing films! Does anyone have any recs for Pakistani films, ideally 21st century and not primarily about violence or depressing real-world history?
After eliminating films that sounded like they were mainly about violence, or 'young girls tragically forced into prostitution', and a couple we couldn't straightforwardly find, we settled on Jonas (2015, directed Lô Politi). We were somewhat misled by the summary, which was about childhood friends reconnecting and getting into an out-of-control situation where they have to hide inside a carnival whale.
jack was expecting some kind of comic hijinks – I knew it was going to be a drama but was thrown by the actual plot being about a violent, drug and murder-fuelled kidnapping rather than impulsive teenagers getting into a weird situation.Jonas is a good film, in that it's well acted and beautifully shot. But the plot is just horrible. The title character's "bad decisions" consist of drinking a bottle of vodka, spying on the woman he fancies, flying into a rage when he sees her with another man, getting into a fight where her lover is accidentally killed, and dealing with this situation by drugging her, kidnapping her and tying her up inside the whale float. I would be somewhat ok with this except that the whole framing is entirely sympathetic to Jonas, explicitly connecting him to the Biblical prophet and implicitly to Jesus.
And there's a sex scene, shot as the typical romantic soft-focus high point when the two young lovers who are meant to be together actually get it on for the first time. Which sits incredibly badly with the context of Branca being imprisoned in the whale and afraid for her life, and Jonas becoming increasingly violent and unhinged until suddenly, violin music and kissing. I don't think I would have liked it better with more emphasis on the lack of consent, but framing it as as a beautiful romantic connection was really gross. The whole film is set up as a serious, arty epic; it doesn't seem on the surface to be fanservice for people who are into bondage and dubcon.
Jonas is a victim in that he's being pressured and violently threatened by a drug gang, and looked down on by Branca's rich relatives, and his father doesn't treat him very well, and so on. And his killing of the drug dealer who is in a relationship with Branca is very clearly an accident. But it feels very weird for him to be rewarded for his execrable behaviour by Branca realizing she loves him after all. I think the final scene is an explicit homage to Bladerunner, with Jonas standing in a Christ-like pose as ash and tears fall on his face. And ok, Roy Batty is a morally ambiguous character, but Jonas does nothing admirable and a number of really awful things.
The best thing about the film is Luan Marques' stand-out performance as Jonas' little brother Jander. Jander is consistently the voice of reason, but he's also a confused small child with limited power to act. He trusts his big brother and would do anything for him, but he has a lot of reasonable moral doubts about kidnapping, and when he finds out that Jonas has killed someone he realizes that things have gone further than just helping his brother in a tricky situation, and involves the authorities.
I think the conclusion is that in future we should take more care in choosing films! Does anyone have any recs for Pakistani films, ideally 21st century and not primarily about violence or depressing real-world history?
