Night Stage – a Brazilian Underground

The 75th edition of the Berlinale was especially positive for Brazilian cinema. More than 20 films, including feature-length and short films, represented a production that, despite the unpredictability of public policies, has proven to be vigorous and diverse. Blue Trail (O Último Azul) by Gabriel Mascaro, was the most awarded, leaving the festival with the Ecumenical Jury Prize, the Morgenpost Readers’ Prize, and the Grand Jury Prize. The Silver Bear is essentially the second most important award at Berlinale.

Blue Trail comes from Pernambuco, a state in northeastern Brazil known for its strong film production, while Night Stage (Ato Noturno) was filmed at the other end of the map, in Rio Grande do Sul. While the former explores, in a dystopian-realist manner, the role of the elderly in capitalist society,  sending them to a kind of concentration camp, the latter exposes the hypocrisy of society regarding non-normative sexuality and the consequences when a politician in the middle of an election campaign tries to hide his sexual orientation.

Night Stage competed in the Panorama section but was not included in the FIPRESCI award selection, which only considered films by debut directors. That was not the case for the duo Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon. The directors’ first two features, Seashore (Beira-mar, 2015) and Hard Paint (Tinta Bruta, 2018), competed at the Berlinale in the Forum and Panorama sections, respectively. In their third film, they display a clear narrative maturity, handling the script (which they also wrote) with confidence and clarity. While allowing breathing space for the audience to fill in gaps, they do not hesitate to highlight the movements of their characters. The story centers on actor Matias (Gabriel Faryas) and politician Rafael (Cirillo Luna), who meet through an app for the sole purpose of having sex. At first, that is all it is.

Amid rehearsals for a theater production and a mayoral campaign, the intensity of the desires between Matias and Rafael is not softened by the direction of Night Stage. Neither the editing nor the cinematography hides the bodies, a stylistic trait of the filmmakers, both from a generation that emerged from one of the first undergraduate film programs in Rio Grande do Sul. They are also part of a generation where sexuality should not only be acknowledged but artistically explored as a politically assertive act.

Context

Beyond the concerning rise of the far right in Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul is particularly known as a conservative state, often racist and homophobic. However, it has its paradoxes. It has elected a Black governor, a woman, and a gay man. The current governor, despite leaning more to the right than to the left, courageously brings his husband to official events.

In the film, the allusion to the real-life governor fades because the narrative takes the provocation to an extreme. The characters share a fetish for “dogging,” where partners find pleasure in the risk of being watched during sex. That is, they prefer public spaces over private ones. Parks and parking lots are their usual settings. In Porto Alegre, some scenes were shot in Redenção Park, the pride of the entire city’s population.

From Tehran to New York, public park sex ─ especially within the LGBTQIA+ community ─ is a reality. Generally, as in Brazil, the practice is illegal, which inherently puts the characters in a dangerous game. The one with the most to lose is the politician Rafael, sponsored by a large corporation (as usual) and making speeches about so-called family values. To conceal the mayoral candidate’s preferences, increasingly unethical decisions are made.

Beyond this, the film also explores the smaller decisions involving the Black actor, who initially seems to have nothing to do with the world of political appearances. However, eager to participate in an audition for which he was not invited, he strikes opportunistic deals with his unscrupulous political partner. In reality, the critical perspective on unethical behavior points to the savagery of capitalism, disguised as neoliberalism. It is the logic of achieving goals without concern for moral values. In this sense, the film gains a reflective depth, avoiding the naïve suggestion that only politicians are amoral. The maturity mentioned at the beginning of this text is evident in the way these young directors build a broader critique beyond just gender issues.

For newer generations, Querelle (1982) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder may not be a reference. However, it is worth noting that sexuality, in such provocative terms, is not exactly a novelty. What is new is the increasingly promiscuous relationship between politicians and corporations, fueled by social media. For most of its runtime, the film offers a sharp observation of these relationships, only faltering at the end by opting for an overly easy resolution. However, this does not compromise the work of a directing duo that has transitioned from promising newcomers to recognized auteurs in Brazil and beyond.

Ivonete Pinto
Edited by Savina Petkova
©FIPRESCI