"Durvalino" is an intriguing, funny and smart debut short film that never fails to surprise its audience. Writer and director Patrícia Regadas was fortunate
enough to get a cast of legendary veteran actors at her disposal (Othon Bastos, Pedro Paulo Rangel, Ilya São Paulo and Ruth de Souza) and they all shine here in fun performances. One may wonder how well-connected she was in order to
get such a marvellous cast right in her very first film, a college project.
The movie follows the title character (Othon), a friendly old man who hands a task to three different men (unknown to each other) where they need to go
to his apartment and help him with some repairments since he's about to move from there. Each time one new man comes along into the apartment, the situation becomes
more and more tense since each of them were given different tasks to perform there and there were never informed about each other. And it gets weirder: a trunk filled
with cash is the only thing present in the empty space. They recount to each story their connection with Durvalino and the job each of them were given to perform.
It's a challenging and surprising film that gives audiences plenty of questions and no easy answers about who was that old man neither worries too much in
showing what's the next step for those three guys. On an ultimate level I believe Patrícia was teasing audiences for the possibility of making a feature film about
this same story, and that would be a fantastic idea since there are plenty of great elements to be worked, from a hilarious comedy to a potential mystery thriller.
Not sure if that'll ever happen but for the time being it'd be a little too late since three cast members already gone in recent years.
I really liked this short, it was surprising all the way, not a single predictable moment came and everybody's having a good time while acting. It's a great
script. 9/10.
