Aquarius (2016)

Directed by: Kleber Mendonça Filho | 145 minutes | drama | Actors: Sonia Braga, Maeve Jinkings, Irandhir Santos, Humberto Carrão, Zoraide Coleto, Carla Ribas, Fernando Teixeira, Buda Lira, Paula De Renor, Barbara Colen, Daniel Porpino, Pedro Queiroz, Germano Melo, Julia Bernat, Thaia Perez, Joana Gatis Tavinho Teixeira, Arly Arnaud, Andrea Rosa, Lula Terra, Allan Souza Lima, Valdeci Junior, Rubens Santos, Amanda Gabriel, Bruno Goya, Clarissa Pinheiro, Leo Wainer, Fabio Leal

‘Aquarius’, the second feature film by Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, who became known for his debut ‘Neighboring Sounds’, is once again set in his hometown of Recife. The city in the north of Brazil plays a role in its own right in this film, as grim as it is beautiful: a place rich in history that falls prey to the modern powers of overgrown commercialism and ruthless project developers.

Clara, a 65-year-old widow (played by the now 67-year-old, but still sensual Sonia Braga) has lived for decades in a spacious and bright apartment in an impressive 1940s building right on the beach of Recife, called Aquarius. She was a renowned music critic, a fact her impressive record collection, influential friends and reputation are still a reminder of. From her home, Clara walks to the beach every morning for a dip in the sea. She and her husband watched their now grown children grow up in the same apartment, and she was struck by breast cancer thirty years earlier. But in the place where she experienced so much and thought she would one day die, a project developer and his grandson, who have big plans for the entire apartment complex, are aggressively preyed upon. All her neighbors have taken the ax and sold their apartment, leaving Clara to live alone in the large building. From this simple but effective fact follows a nerve-racking battle between Clara and the project developers, which at times even takes on eerie aspects. But ‘Aquarius’ is not a smooth action film about a heroine who successfully competes against the ‘big money’, but rather a detailed character study of an independent, intelligent, principled but also vulnerable woman, who is not ready to become a relic of the past. to make.

The film’s very first images are black-and-white photos of Recife from the late 1970s, followed by scenes from the same time of young mother Clara, with her hair cut short as a remnant of breast cancer treatment, and her husband and children celebrating her birthday. free-spirited Aunt Lucia celebrates. A jump in time brings us to Clara today, with wavy black hair down to her buttocks; herself at least as liberal as her aunt was then. She spends her days listening to music – from her own record collection or from her young cousin’s MP3 player – dancing, drinking wine, swimming, walking and occasionally smoking a joint. In addition, she is a loving mother and grandmother, but Clara is clearly not the person to be pushed into a one-sided role.

‘Aquarius’ is also a plea for how it is possible, to grow old in style, with room for art, for sexuality; where the past is honored, and not just when it suits. Or as Clara aptly puts it: “If you think something is beautiful, it’s called vintage, otherwise you suddenly call it old.” The struggle between Clara and the real estate agents also refers to the battle between old and new, between preserving traditions and modernization, in which the film does not always take sides naturally.

Clara’s free-spirited and elegant lifestyle – at times she is an outright diva – is at least facilitated by her loyal doméstica or home helper Ladjane, who has been taking care of all household tasks for many years. By allowing Ladjane’s character to move to the fore at unexpected and inconvenient moments, Mendonça Filho subtly points out the sustainability of some of the achievements of the environment and Clara’s generation, as well as the tensions associated with class relations.

At the same time, it is difficult to separate ‘Aquarius’ from the current political events in Brazil. Then Clara’s injustice will no longer stand on its own, but touch on wider progressive gains that – especially for women – are being jeopardized now that a conservative male elite has aggressively reclaimed power. Corruption is nothing new, Clara says, lamenting how ‘typically Brazilian it is’ that power positions in the media, real estate and politics are uncomfortably intertwined. But the outright threat she faces is new to her too. The wave of real estate speculation has been a reality in Recife over the past decade, even giving the director the idea for the film.

The delightful soundtrack – from Queen with ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ and ‘Another one bites the dust’ to the samba of Brazilian singer Maria Bethânia and the classical music of pianist Sonia Rubinsky and cellist Heitor Villa-Lobos – gives a zest for life and a sense of revitalize your music collection. Sonia Braga’s dreamy camerawork and challenging acting do the rest.