Simply put, Brazilian motels are places for people to have sex. Everyone knows it, no one objects to it. You pay by the hour and the suite is yours––a big bed, porn on-demand, bring red or blue lighting to illuminate the bodies as they merge––to fulfill your carnal needs. As well as a haven for horny people in transit, the motel is a place to return to and consummate a bond that deepens with every sexual act. Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz zooms in on one such location in Motel Destino, his sixth Cannes entry thus far, and second in the Main Competition. The northeastern coast of Ceará is where the film takes place. The cinematic version of Aïnouz’s home province glistens under the scorching sun of the equator, the sea lapping at the sand while crime is still what a lot of people do to get by:...
- 5/26/2024
- by Savina Petkova
- The Film Stage
Those look for a libido-juicing kick at this year’s Cannes Film Festival surely found it in “Motel Destino,” the sexually explicit erotic thriller from Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz.
Competing in the main competition once again after “Invisible Life” and “Firebrand,” Aïnouz returned to his native Brazil to shoot this perverse psychosexual triangle about the owners of a sex motel along the country’s northeastern Atlantic coast, and the criminal drifter who disrupts their lives. The wild-haired Dayana (Nataly Rocha) operates the Motel Destino with her abusive husband Elias (Fábio Assunção), where she takes up an unhinged affair with Heraldo (Iago Xavier), and amid nonstop sucking and fucking, plot to kill Elias in the grand tradition of the great noirs. Except it’s a noir with a post-Hays Code, liberated twist that has rocked Cannes with its strong, pervasive sexual content, to use the language of the American Motion Picture Association’s ratings board.
Competing in the main competition once again after “Invisible Life” and “Firebrand,” Aïnouz returned to his native Brazil to shoot this perverse psychosexual triangle about the owners of a sex motel along the country’s northeastern Atlantic coast, and the criminal drifter who disrupts their lives. The wild-haired Dayana (Nataly Rocha) operates the Motel Destino with her abusive husband Elias (Fábio Assunção), where she takes up an unhinged affair with Heraldo (Iago Xavier), and amid nonstop sucking and fucking, plot to kill Elias in the grand tradition of the great noirs. Except it’s a noir with a post-Hays Code, liberated twist that has rocked Cannes with its strong, pervasive sexual content, to use the language of the American Motion Picture Association’s ratings board.
- 5/23/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Motel Destino, directed by Karim Aïnouz, begins with a burst of energy and intrigue, setting up a promising neo-noir thriller set against the vibrant backdrop of Northeastern Brazil. The film follows Heraldo (Iago Xavier) and his brother, whose favorite pastime of beach outings and capoeira practice belies their darker side as petty criminals indebted to a local madam. Their latest assignment — a high-stakes murder — plunges them into a realm of danger and desperation. However, despite its gripping start and lush cinematography, the film ultimately loses its way, bogged down by a sluggish middle act and narrative inconsistencies.
The brothers are tasked with assassinating a Frenchman in exchange for freedom from their debt. Before the mission, Heraldo decides to unwind at a nightclub, where he meets a mysterious woman who leads him to Motel Destino. After a night of passion, he awakens to find her gone, his money stolen and himself locked in the room.
The brothers are tasked with assassinating a Frenchman in exchange for freedom from their debt. Before the mission, Heraldo decides to unwind at a nightclub, where he meets a mysterious woman who leads him to Motel Destino. After a night of passion, he awakens to find her gone, his money stolen and himself locked in the room.
- 5/22/2024
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Nihilism and neon-popped lust collide in Brazilian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz’s Portuguese-language “Motel Destino,” set in a love motel so sordid that lay tourists should best avoid it, and only criminals and castaways are likely to check in. The “Invisible Life” director’s steamy psychosexual thriller set in the sweatiest armpit of the equator speaks melodrama and noir but with a Brazilian accent, Aïnouz returning to his home state of Ceará to shoot on his own turf for the first time in five years. The writer/director lifts from classics such as Lawrence Kasdan’s “Body Heat” and Billy Wilder’s “Double Indemnity” but also from ‘70s Brazilian sex comedies to tell a perverse yarn of extramarital betrayal turned murderous. But while the pre-“Body Heat” noirs he’s channeling could only suggest rather than spell out sex, Aïnouz goes graphic — and relentlessly — in an arthouse-only erotic genre piece that...
- 5/22/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Shot between his directing Alicia Vikander in “Firebrand” and Kristen Stewart in “Rosebushpruning,” “Motel Destino,” which bows in Cannes Competition on May 22, can be seen as a return by Brazil’s now most international director to his Brazilian roots.
This axis between international and local, plays out in “Motel Destino” and Aïnouz insists, in now his whole career.
An erotic thriller, “Motel Destino” turns on Dayana, the young wife of a roadside sex hotel owner who seduces on-the-run minor mobster Heraldo for great sex. But she soon conceives the idea of his helping her to kill her terrifyingly abusive older husband.
“I was really interested in a kind of Brazilian interpretation of melodrama and noir cinema, how to take genre, which begins in Hollywood, and appropriate it make it local and ours,” Aïnouz tells Variety.
“Motel Destino” is melodrama “in the sense these characters that are trying to survive, by any means.
This axis between international and local, plays out in “Motel Destino” and Aïnouz insists, in now his whole career.
An erotic thriller, “Motel Destino” turns on Dayana, the young wife of a roadside sex hotel owner who seduces on-the-run minor mobster Heraldo for great sex. But she soon conceives the idea of his helping her to kill her terrifyingly abusive older husband.
“I was really interested in a kind of Brazilian interpretation of melodrama and noir cinema, how to take genre, which begins in Hollywood, and appropriate it make it local and ours,” Aïnouz tells Variety.
“Motel Destino” is melodrama “in the sense these characters that are trying to survive, by any means.
- 5/21/2024
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
With Cannes Film Festival now officially underway and reviews coming in, we’re also getting new looks at some of our most-anticipated premieres. The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão director Karim Aïnouz returns to the festival, just one year after the starry Firebrand, returning to his roots with Motel Destino. Starring Iago Xavier, Nataly Rocha, Fabio Assunção, the stylish first teaser and poster have now arrived for the Cannes competition premiere.
Here’s the synopsis: “The neon-hued Motel Destino, a roadside sex hotel steaming under the burning blue skies of the northeastern coast of Brazil, is run by hot-headed Elias and his restless younger wife Dayana. The unexpected arrival of 21-year-old Heraldo, on the run after a botched hit, disrupts the established order. As the tropical noir plays out, loyalties and desires intertwine to reveal that destiny has its own enigmatic design.”
Watch the teaser below.
The post First Teaser...
Here’s the synopsis: “The neon-hued Motel Destino, a roadside sex hotel steaming under the burning blue skies of the northeastern coast of Brazil, is run by hot-headed Elias and his restless younger wife Dayana. The unexpected arrival of 21-year-old Heraldo, on the run after a botched hit, disrupts the established order. As the tropical noir plays out, loyalties and desires intertwine to reveal that destiny has its own enigmatic design.”
Watch the teaser below.
The post First Teaser...
- 5/15/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Karim Aïnouz is harnessing the sweaty desire of corruption for his latest erotic thriller “Motel Destino.”
The Brazilian filmmaker returns to his native country for the feature, which was shot entirely in Aïnouz’s homeland of Ceará. “Motel Destino” stars Iago Xavier and Nataly Rocha, who were selected from an extensive casting process, and renowned Brazilian actor Fabio Assunção.
Per the official synopsis, neon-hued Motel Destino is a roadside sex hotel under the burning blue skies of the Northeastern coast of Brazil, run by the boorish Elias and his frustrated, beautiful wife Dayana. When 21-year-old Heraldo finds himself at the motel, after messing up a hit and going on the run from both the police and the gang he let down, Dayana finds herself intrigued and lets him stay. As the two navigate a dance of power, desire and liberation, a dangerous plan for freedom emerges. In this tropical noir,...
The Brazilian filmmaker returns to his native country for the feature, which was shot entirely in Aïnouz’s homeland of Ceará. “Motel Destino” stars Iago Xavier and Nataly Rocha, who were selected from an extensive casting process, and renowned Brazilian actor Fabio Assunção.
Per the official synopsis, neon-hued Motel Destino is a roadside sex hotel under the burning blue skies of the Northeastern coast of Brazil, run by the boorish Elias and his frustrated, beautiful wife Dayana. When 21-year-old Heraldo finds himself at the motel, after messing up a hit and going on the run from both the police and the gang he let down, Dayana finds herself intrigued and lets him stay. As the two navigate a dance of power, desire and liberation, a dangerous plan for freedom emerges. In this tropical noir,...
- 5/15/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Karim Aïnouz is following up his 2023 English-language debut “Firebrand” with a return to his Brazilian roots.
For his second consecutive Cannes premiere, Aïnouz helmed erotic thriller “Motel Destino” which will screen in competition at the festival. “Motel Destino” is Aïnouz’s sixth Cannes premiere, with his 2019 feature “Invisible Life” winning the Un Certain Regard award.
“Motel Destino” stars Iago Xavier and Nataly Rocha, who were selected from an extensive casting process, and renowned Brazilian actor Fabio Assunção. The official synopsis reads: “The neon-hued Motel Destino is a roadside sex hotel under the burning blue skies of the Northeastern coast of Brazil, run by the boorish Elias and his frustrated, beautiful wife Dayana. When 21-year-old Heraldo finds himself at the motel, after messing up a hit and going on the run from both the police and the gang he let down, Dayana finds herself intrigued and lets him stay. As the...
For his second consecutive Cannes premiere, Aïnouz helmed erotic thriller “Motel Destino” which will screen in competition at the festival. “Motel Destino” is Aïnouz’s sixth Cannes premiere, with his 2019 feature “Invisible Life” winning the Un Certain Regard award.
“Motel Destino” stars Iago Xavier and Nataly Rocha, who were selected from an extensive casting process, and renowned Brazilian actor Fabio Assunção. The official synopsis reads: “The neon-hued Motel Destino is a roadside sex hotel under the burning blue skies of the Northeastern coast of Brazil, run by the boorish Elias and his frustrated, beautiful wife Dayana. When 21-year-old Heraldo finds himself at the motel, after messing up a hit and going on the run from both the police and the gang he let down, Dayana finds herself intrigued and lets him stay. As the...
- 4/11/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Modern-day production in Argentina lifted off from its new Argentine Cinema, born over 1991-95, in Brazil with Walter Salles’ 1998 “Central Station,” in Mexico from Carlos Reygadas’ 2002 “Japón.”
Now, Latin America is seeing second-phase expansion based out of smaller markets, driven by the energies of forward-thinking production companies determined to not just build slates but their national film industries.
In line with the massive new talent focus of many of Locarno’s industry programs – this year’s Germany First Look with five feature debuts, the Match Me! emerging producer springboard – Open Doors will focus on Latin America’s most under-represented territories and the Caribbean, where production companies have sprung up after national cinema lift-off in more major countries in the region.
Bolivia’s Empatía Cinema, for example, was founded in 2007, but most key companies at Locarno launched significantly later: Ypr Films in 2010, La Linterna Films in 2011, Paraguay’s Asociación Cultural Arraigo...
Now, Latin America is seeing second-phase expansion based out of smaller markets, driven by the energies of forward-thinking production companies determined to not just build slates but their national film industries.
In line with the massive new talent focus of many of Locarno’s industry programs – this year’s Germany First Look with five feature debuts, the Match Me! emerging producer springboard – Open Doors will focus on Latin America’s most under-represented territories and the Caribbean, where production companies have sprung up after national cinema lift-off in more major countries in the region.
Bolivia’s Empatía Cinema, for example, was founded in 2007, but most key companies at Locarno launched significantly later: Ypr Films in 2010, La Linterna Films in 2011, Paraguay’s Asociación Cultural Arraigo...
- 8/1/2022
- by John Hopewell and Pablo Sandoval
- Variety Film + TV
Cannes Cinéfondation winner Michael Labarca will hit Locarno’s Open Doors next week with his feature debut project, “Kids Swimming in the Lake,” produced by Venezuela’s Todos Los Ríos, France’s Ticket Shoot Films and Chile’s Oro Films.
For Venezuelan movie projects, such international co-productions are not only a virtue but a necessity, “due to the crisis of our public funding for production, our limitation of access to the Ibermedia fund and the complex situation of our country,” said “Kids” producer Patricia Ramírez Arévalo at Todos los Rios.
Set in contemporary Venezuela, “Kids Swimming in the Lake” deals with emigration, but from the point of view of those left behind.
During constant blackouts, 11-year-old Dayana and her little siblings dream of leaving Venezuela and reuniting with their father, who migrated fleeing the crisis. As they anxiously wait for this day, the kids watch as other families and their friends leave first.
For Venezuelan movie projects, such international co-productions are not only a virtue but a necessity, “due to the crisis of our public funding for production, our limitation of access to the Ibermedia fund and the complex situation of our country,” said “Kids” producer Patricia Ramírez Arévalo at Todos los Rios.
Set in contemporary Venezuela, “Kids Swimming in the Lake” deals with emigration, but from the point of view of those left behind.
During constant blackouts, 11-year-old Dayana and her little siblings dream of leaving Venezuela and reuniting with their father, who migrated fleeing the crisis. As they anxiously wait for this day, the kids watch as other families and their friends leave first.
- 8/1/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
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