California

Sao Paulo, 1984. Estela is seventeen. There are election rallies in the streets, a record player at home, and at school everyone is trying to become something. Estela's hero is her uncle Carlos; he lives in California and going to stay with him is her greatest dream. California has been promised and the ticket is almost bought. Then Carlos comes home, thin and ill. Estela is caught between growing up and an illness whose meaning is only being learned. Marina Person directs; it is her first feature. Caio Blat and Caio Horowicz are in the cast. It is a Brazilian production. Person had worked as a presenter on music television in Brazil and the music of the period is decisive inside the film. The film takes 1984 as a direct subject; the demonstrations demanding direct elections stand in the background of the narrative. The matter it treats is a dream closing; the place to go remains and the reason for going disappears. The film does not name the illness early and keeps the ignorance of the time intact. The narrative carries adolescence, sexuality and friendship at once. The images and the costumes build the period in detail without sliding into nostalgia. The ending leaves Estela grown and does not present that as a gain. Its limit is scale; the narrative is small, the plot loose, and the dramatic weight light. Who it is for: viewers who like Brazilian cinema and coming of age stories set in the eighties. Who it is not for: it is loose, quiet, and the ending sad.