Os Olhos de Arthur

While Allan Deberton's short film is interestingly well-made and well-shot, it's somewhat uneven to figure out the purpose of its slightly enigmatic story (allegedly based on a real case). It follows an autistic child-like teen named Arthur (André Campos), who dreams of being a professional swimmer. He doesn't talk much, but he interacts very enthusiastically with the people around him, which includes his babysitter Maria (Edneia Tutti) and his swimming instructor (Victor Novaes). Somehow, in between swimming movements, he overhears that his babysitter is about to get married and a person in the crowd keeps on chanting "who's gonna take care of you now, Arthur?" and it's no wonder that things will spin out of control in what was a lovely sunny day with a party moments earlier.

For the life of me I couldn't figure out about why the boy doesn't have parents, or if they exist why the babysitter becomes the center of the world, but worst, why such a cruel and sickening remarks would be done with an autistic person? Who was that third party? She knows about his difficulties and how he reacts with people as it is very visible how he reacts to whenever interaction comes his way. "The Eyes of Arthur" makes it hard to relate with the "normal" people since they all act wrong in one or the other.

What fascinated me was the performance from the lead, the build up of how the small drama with some humor moves down to a darker story, and in between there's the young man's dreams and his freedom inside the pool which makes something simple look as magic. And the end was lovely too. But as for the relevance in telling this exact story was a little beyond my sense of comprehension, except that the right emotions to get extracted from the audience will get extracted with great effect. 6/10.