Praia do Futuro

As beautiful a cinematic essay on the subject of fear as I've seen in a while, Karim Aïnouz's "Futuro Beach" manages to cover a plethora of fears common to the human condition - fear of solitude, fear of commitment, fear of rejection, fear of change, fear of death (hell, even fear of water is covered) – and the remarkable human ability to overcome them.

Donato (Wagner Moura) is a lifeguard at a Brazilian Beach who is only able to save one of two German tourists from drowning. Having never had to face death before, he reaches out to the surviving tourist Konrad (Clemens Schick) and soon finds himself in a complex relationship that leads him to question who he is and what he wants from life. Faced with making difficult choices, including the decision to abandon his younger brother and mother and relocate to Germany to join Konrad, Donato finds that his fears have followed him. Eventually isolating himself from Konrad and still unable to deal, he finds himself living a solitary life until he comes face-to-face with his past. Only then can he finally begin the journey of self-acceptance necessary to move beyond the fears that have held him back from experiencing a full life.

Cinematographer Ali Olay Gözkaya's stunning photography captures the natural beauty of the Brazilian and European locations and enhances the story's mood and tone. Performances are strong from the two principals and the two actors playing the younger brother Ayrton, ages 10 and 18 (Sávio Ygor Ramos and Jesuíta Barbosa,) also acquit themselves nicely. The scenes with the two brothers ably capture the special bond often shared between male siblings.

Often jumping from moments of quiet and solitude to scenes with pulsating sounds and action, "Futuro Beach" grabs you from its opening shots of motorcyclists dwarfed by the turbines of a wind farm to its concluding POV imagery of another motorcycle trek down an endless road at dusk. It excels at cinematically and dramatically capturing a snapshot of the often emotionally treacherous voyage that is life.

beautiful, bitter, useful. a film about relations and choices. delicate poetry and good performances. not comfortable but touching for its honesty, for the landscapes, for the dialogs and for the grace of silence. a film about love and its decision, about guilt feelings and about gestures who are only exercise to know happiness. about the responsibility. and about the past who remains the skin of present. short- a beautiful film. not in ordinary manner but that detail defines it. because it is the work of an admirable director who use the right nuances for a story who might be almost cruel. a gentle speech about the sense of life.

Rather introspective, this Brazilian/German film, with little plot and a lot of propositions easy to follow, but maybe not that easy to understand. The story centers on a safeguard attracted to a man he saves. They soon go for sex, softly depicted in the movie. Next they go to Germany, in a process of inner evolution for the Brazilian lead that may be difficult for the appetite of American audiences, little is spoken. A Brazilian like me does understand it better, for it's a dilemma most common for a man divided between its original family and a life he thinks ought to be better. The principals are the continuum of the film, both handsome, specially the well-built safeguard. It was already discussed that the word 'love' is not part of the plot. Not a single time it is mentioned they could experiment this sentiment to one another, and one will really have to speculate on which were the inner movements that made the Brazilian immigrate. Not an easy film, but I think it worth the effort. A trivia: in Brazil, where Wagner Moura is well known and the film went to commercial circuit, the sex scenes were a scandal. So much so that audiences where advertised in the tickets about the subject.

The acting was done well overall. The premise of the movie starts out great... but then it starts to jump.

I'm not sure if there was an editing issue. Maybe there was more story that was left out due to time constraints. About 3/4 of the way through the movie I found myself thinking "Did I miss something?". Going back and reviewing some things, I found I did not. Timelines and locations are very muddled, or completely nonexistent. Prepare to jump decades, continents, and relationship without a moments notice.

Having said that, I liked the movie. It wasn't a bad watch on a lazy Thursday afternoon.

"Beach" opens with two motorcycle riders riding along the sand, and cooling off in the waters of a nearby beach; When one of them drowns, the lifeguard tries, but fails to save him. The lifeguard Doni, ( Wagner Moura) strikes up a "friendship" with the buddy of the guy that was lost (Clemens Schick). Lots of hot guys. The friendship turns into more... but the plot development moves pretty slowly. Konrad wants Doni to stay, but Doni wants to get back to his job and his family. Full frontal nudity. Lots of butt shots. Not a lot of dialogue, but maybe that's part of the charm. A whole lot of dancing in nightclubs. Some GREAT scenes of a giant indoor aquarium, and also many ocean scenes. Then his family issues catch up with him. Doni must decide what's important to him. The ending was a little metaphysical, but you can judge for yourself. Certainly worth the price of a DVD on amazon.com.

Directed by Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz, who has done numerous films. Co-wrote this with Felipe Bragança. Very Euro.