Bittersweet Rain

Haroldo Borges's 2023 Brazilian film follows Joaquim, living in the countryside of Bahia, learning that he will gradually go blind. He tells nobody; in the same period he falls in love for the first time and is not answered. Two losses fit into one summer. The film is honest in not presenting blindness as tragedy: Joaquim's real fear is not losing his sight but the way his mother and the people around him will start to look at him. The telling is slow and works with natural light; the dry landscape forms its emotional ground. Bruno Jefferson is not a professional actor, and that gives it its naturalness. There is almost no plot. Who it's for: viewers who like Brazilian independent cinema and coming-of-age stories. Who it's not for: anyone wanting incident, or avoiding the subject of illness.