FUTURO BEACH
The dawn of a new Brazil heralds a novo- gay cinema and Futuro Beach is leading the charge, writes Marc Andrews.
Brazil is getting gay friendly and so is its film industry. Popcorn please!
Brazil is fast catching up to the West with new laws and attitudes towards its gay citizens. From marriage equality to the world’s largest gay celebration in São Paulo, this new embracing of its tropical and topical gayness is also ref lected in Brazil’s movie industry, where gay-themes are no longer avant-garde or fringe but very much part of the mainstream.
2009’s From Beginning To End was something of a groundbreaker, being an almost soft-core porn look at the love between two ridiculously handsome half brothers. Which brings us to the latest demonstration of this novo-Brazilian gay cinema. It’s taken until 2014 for a slew of gaythemed movies to make their way out of Brazil and sneak around the rest of the globe.
Futuro Beach ( Praia do Futuro in the original Portuguese) is a Brazilian film co-produced with a German company that premiered earlier this year at the Berlin International Film Festival to a positive response. The movie tells the story of a straight-acting lifeguard, Donato (Wagner Moura), who patrols a busy beach. When he rescues a German tourist with a nifty moustache, Konrad (Clemens Schick), the two men try to locate Konrad’s friend who appears
“The film is slick, sexy, moody, romantic, dangerous and thrilling. In other words, everything you would expect from something coming out of Brazil.”
to have drowned. When Donato and Konrad realise that they like each other both in and out of swimwear, Donato decides to move to Berlin so they can be together.
Years later, Donato’s younger brother Ayrton (Jesuita Barbosa) comes to find him and things get (as they inevitably do in the South American way) even more romantically complicated. The film is slick, sexy, moody, romantic, dangerous and thrilling. In other words, everything you would expect from something coming out of Brazil.
This year also saw the release of Do Lado de Fora (no English title as of yet), a comedy about two teenagers who visit a (closetted) gay uncle. They all end up going to the Sao Paulo Gay Pride parade. After they witness some nasty homophobia, they decide to take matters into their own hands and (as if inspired by an Almodóvar film) decide to make everyone in their group come out of the closet before the next year’s parade. The poster for the movie cleverly features a series of dull brown men’s shoes with the one exception being a pair of pink heels.
Also coming up is another Brazilian gay-themed movie, The Way He Looks (Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho). It’s a coming-of-age tale directed by Daniel Ribeiro, about a cute blind teenager who discovers hitherto unknown feelings when a new student arrives in his classroom. The movie was also a big hit at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year where it premiered. If you sense a feeling of gay pride suddenly bursting through in Brazil’s cinema output then you’re definitely feeling the Real-ness (that’s the name of the local currency, you see). With so many countries around the world regressing or reneging on gay issues, Brazil’s progressive stance and taboo-tackling is to be encouraged and applauded. More please, er, obrigado. More: Futuro Beach is released through Strand Releasing.