The Blue Trail
Awarded at the Berlin Film Festival, this magical realist satire tells the story of Tereza, who defies a regime that oppresses the elderly and escapes into the Amazon jungle.
In a film combining dystopian satire and magical realism, the elderly are ceremonially honoured as a “national living heritage,” even though the reality is much bleaker. One day, 77-year-old Tereza learns that as an overaged person, she is to be relocated to a colony for the elderly, out from the way of national productivity. The time for the strong-willed Tereza is not yet over, so she decides to escape.
Unable to buy a plane ticket without the consent of her daughter, who’s been marked as her legal guardian, Tereza must head for the river regions inhabited by smugglers along the meanders of the Amazon. In the beds of the serpentine river, on a thrilling journey filled with surrealist wonders, she encounters social outcasts, human fates marinated in repentance, and foretelling animals.
Award-winning writer-director Gabriel Mascaro’s film is a visually arresting, emotionally evocative story of resistance and late-life liberation. The elegant cinematography and minimalistically haunting music pulse with mythic clarity and political causticity, centred on the stunning performance by Denise Weinberg. The surprising and gentle riverboat journey is a reminder that it is never too late to live.
Otto Kylmälä (translated by Moritz Müller)
Trailer
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