Sea of Roses

Ana Carolina's 1977 Brazilian film follows a woman fleeing her husband with her daughter beside her. The journey follows no sensible line and the encounters grow stranger. The target is the family order. The relationship between mother and daughter swings between affection and aggression; the narrative abandons realism for the absurd, and does so knowingly. It was made under military government and implies the machinery of repression without speaking politics directly. Norma Bengell leads. It is the first of three films by the director. Who it's for: those who like Brazilian cinema and formal experiment. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a comprehensible plot; the film is deliberately unruly.