Pacarrete

Allan Deberton's 2019 Brazilian film is set in a small town in the northeast. Pacarrete is a retired dance teacher who trained in Rio years ago, came back, and has become someone nobody in town takes seriously. As the celebrations of the town's founding approach she wants to go on stage and perform her own dance; the council does not want her, her family sees her as an embarrassment and children laugh behind her in the street. The film manages to make an old woman's stubbornness both ridiculous and dignified, and does not soften the town's cruelty towards her. Marcélia Cartaxo plays her without trying to make her likeable, and the final passage on stage carries the whole film. It won many awards in Brazil. Who it's for: viewers who like character-led Brazilian drama. Who it's not for: anyone who would rather not approach old age, exclusion and humiliation.