Kleber Mendonça Filho directs Wagner Moura, Carlos Francisco and Tânia Maria in this Brazillian thriller where a man on the run in the late 70’s assumes the false identity of a clerk to answer some personal enigmas.

Sexy, dangerous and loose – this is a movie that spins off in a dozen delicious directions while never fully satisfying any. Altman-esque in structure, it goes for what can only be described as the No Country For Old Men conclusion. Well, hey… No Country For Old Men is one of my all timers. I guess the ultimate point that whether haunted by the past or living in the present we will never know the full story. Moura is an avatar for a thousand disrupted lives. Yet he lends grace and emotional truth to all interactions. Soft masculinity. Some gleefully fantastical subplots, others desperate and gritty. In a corrupt regime there can be no law but there still can be society. How we carry ourselves with others makes us a different man with every transaction. A very rich tapestry or mosaic film… I really want a second watch before passing final judgment. But unlike plot twist dependent releases, this is a format of narrative cinema that demands repeated explorations. Watched at the beautiful Vester Vov Vov cinema in Copenhagen.

8

Perfect Double Bill: I’m Still Here (2025)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin