I could not imagine being watching a film like THE END OF INNOCENCE, but what a pleasant surprise it was! The film, directed brilliantly by Joaquim Leitão (this is his twelfth feature, so ...) is based on the best-selling eponymous book by Francisco Salgueiro, and has a strong young cast at its core. the great majority of the actors and actresses of the adolescent wing are experienced in TV and cinema) and its protagonist is rookie in the big screen: the beautiful model Oksana Tkach , born in Ukraine, but having come to Portugal at the age of 4 of age. The 20-year-old model actress plays Ines, a rich family girl (with an oppressive mother, a deceased father and a distant stepfather), who, in turn, yields to dangerous sex and drugs temptations in her prime. Ines goes to the bottom of the well. The thing loses the brake. But without spoilers, we'll stick around. Let's talk about the movie itself. Only the curious detail of the title - Ines or Agnes means just that - purity, innocence. It is the end of it, that innocence. And the beginning of a beautiful work of cinema.
THE END OF INNOCENCE has the naturalistic tone, I did not read the book, but whoever read it says the text is crude, but breathtaking, not to leave. So, it stays what was transposed to the screens. The film follows frantic action - and well - and it all happens in a very talented, very rhythmic way, as fast as the messages on mobile internet applications and the hormone speed of these teenage characters. The film, which is beautifully visually, has the direction of photography of the no less talented Luís Branquinho, experienced cinematographer who illuminated (many) films, among them FLORBELA and more recently, PILGRIMAGE. The film is to applaud while watching it.
The director Joaquim Leitão has in his curriculum works like ADAM AND EVA and TEMPTATION, where he directed, among others, actors like Joaquim de Almeida and Maria de Medeiros. There are 18 films in all, between short films, longs and television material in Leitão's career. And his new film works very well in all the issues of the edition (there are two artists in this area, António Gonçalves and Sergio Batista Pedro) to the soundtrack (José M. Afonso) and to the production of the experienced Ana Costa (who was ahead of Bille August's NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON, with Jeremy Irons in the cast).
This sum of artists and equipment hand-picked (drones, cranes, imperceptible steadicams - this is the grace of the cinema, hiding the equipment and letting the work breathe), a rush in details, precision in creating a truly valuable product , drawn in detail, which in no way resembles a television movie, because it is pure cinema, makes THE END OF INNOCENCE a work that communicates perfectly with audiences ranging from young people to parents, teachers and the public in general, such that quality of the narration and the characterization of its characters by the beautiful cast. It's the so-called high concept movie, made to communicate precisely with very well-defined audiences. Lessons that teach.
Forget the television. THE END OF INNOCENCE is, I repeat here, pure cinema. It is a sign that the generation I attended in 2014, of Portuguese short-filmmakers already showed great talent and enormous liveliness of ideas and creative solutions, that has wonderful ways to go, and is already very well represented with the strong light waved in the big screens for works like this film by Joaquim Leitão. This film is a thermometer of an irrepressible breath. Portuguese cinema will show its claws even more. Let more movies come.
