Loveling

Irene lives with her four sons on the outskirts of Rio. The house is small, there is no money and her marriage is tired. Her eldest son Fernando plays handball and an offer comes from a professional club in Germany. The boy will go. Within a few days Irene has to prepare for that parting and keep the rest of daily life running. Her sister leaves her husband and moves in, her husband starts a new venture, the youngest boy breaks something. The house is never quiet. Gustavo Pizzi directs; he wrote the script with Karine Teles. Karine Teles plays Irene. Otavio Muller, Adriana Esteves and Konstantinos Sarris are in the cast. It is a Brazilian and Uruguayan co-production. The film screened in the world cinema dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival on 18 January 2018. It was named best film at the Grande Premio do Cinema Brasileiro in 2019. Karine Teles is both the lead and a writer, and the character feeds on her own life. The matter it treats is letting go; sending her son away, the mother does not know what her own life will be. The film gives the noise and the crowding of the house as they are; the scenes overlap. The narrative asks for no pity and keeps its humour. The camera is handheld and constantly moving. The ending brings no large resolution. Its limit is scale; the plot is thin, the narrative loose, and the dramatic weight light. Who it is for: viewers who like family drama and Brazilian cinema. Who it is not for: it is loose, uneventful, and the ending measured.