The Awakener

Miguel is a federal agent. Well trained, capable with weapons, and years in the field. Something heavy happens in his personal life and after it he cannot hold himself in; he goes on doing the job while steadily widening his limits. He steps outside the rules, answers to nobody and begins applying his own justice. The service ignores it for a while. Then it becomes uncontrollable. Gustavo Bonafé directs. Kiko Pissolato plays Miguel. It is a Brazilian production. The form is action thriller and the narrative uses the shapes of the genre directly. The matter it treats is the lack of oversight of policing; violence by the security forces has long been argued over in Brazil and the film carries that in the background. The violent scenes are explicit and the narrative does not draw them out. Its limit is the script; the character's collapse is insufficiently built and the change comes quickly. The photography is dark and largely handheld. It had limited distribution in Brazil. The narrative defends no character and the ending offers no resolution. Who it is for: viewers who like Latin American crime thrillers and hard genre films. Who it is not for: the violence is heavy, the character development weak, and the narrative familiar.