Long Way Home

André Novais Oliveira's 2019 Brazilian film follows a move inside the country. Juliana takes a job with the municipal sanitation department and relocates from Itaúna to Contagem. While waiting for her husband to join her, she tries to build a life alone in the new city: meeting neighbours, getting close to colleagues, working through something she left behind. The film makes no effort to underline its class or geography; the camera stays on ordinary streets and inside an ordinary job and declines to manufacture drama. Grace Passô's performance is measured enough to carry the whole weight of it. It belongs to the notable independent strand that has come out of the Belo Horizonte area. Who it's for: viewers who like slow cinema that finds its story in daily life. Who it's not for: anyone waiting for tension, a turning point or a clear ending; the film promises none of them.