I saw this film at the Rotterdam film festival (IFFR) 2014, where it was part of the Tiger Award competition. The venue (379 seats) was fully booked for the European première of this Brazilian film. Alas, I found the three main characters rather un-interesting. They were one-dimensionally portrayed by highlighting one specific trait for each of them, but failing to provide for a full picture of what these people did "tick", and what else they did apart from what was shown to us.
All this may very well be on purpose, however, I must confess having ignored the warning signs on the festival website "Not the narrative's facts but its atmosphere, created using brooding images, and the indefinable soundtrack are important." As a certified nerd, I'm not sensitive for such things as "atmosphere", so this is lost on me. I scored a 1 (lowest) for the audience award when leaving the theater. I was not alone in this, as the film ranked lowly 191th place (out of 200) for the audience award.
All this may very well be on purpose, however, I must confess having ignored the warning signs on the festival website "Not the narrative's facts but its atmosphere, created using brooding images, and the indefinable soundtrack are important." As a certified nerd, I'm not sensitive for such things as "atmosphere", so this is lost on me. I scored a 1 (lowest) for the audience award when leaving the theater. I was not alone in this, as the film ranked lowly 191th place (out of 200) for the audience award.
