From Beginning to End

Julieta has two sons by different fathers, six years apart. Francisco and Thomás grow up together and the closeness between them is strangely unconditional from childhood. The family sees it and does not intervene. Years pass; they become adults and the relationship turns into something else. Thomás is called to a swimming camp in Russia and separation appears for the first time. Aluizio Abranches directs and wrote the screenplay. The cast includes João Gabriel Vasconcellos, Rafael Cardoso, Fábio Assunção, Júlia Lemmertz and Jean Pierre Noher. The film's choice is not to build the narrative as a crisis. The family accepts it, nobody objects and no threat comes from outside, which is an unusual position for a film taking on two taboos at once. It caused argument in Brazil. A promotional video leaked before release met with a reaction and the argument changed the marketing. It opened in Brazil on 27 November 2009; released with only nine prints it reached a hundred thousand admissions and was among the most watched domestic films of the year. The image is soft and idealised; the narrative is not after realism and that is deliberate. Its weakness is the absence of conflict. Because nothing resists the characters the narrative cannot produce tension and stalls in the second half. Who it is for: anyone curious about Brazilian cinema and films that take on taboo subjects. Who it is not for: the subject is unacceptable to many viewers, the narrative is uneventful, and the characters face no difficulty.