The Man of the Year

Maiquel loses a bet and has to dye his hair blond. Somebody makes fun of him in a bar. Maiquel shoots the man. The neighbourhood applauds the death, because the man was one nobody liked. Soon other things start being asked of him; a neighbour offers a name, a businessman offers money, an association gives him a prize. Maiquel planned none of it. He acquires a house, a woman and a car. And there is no way for him to stop. Jose Henrique Fonseca directs. The film is adapted from a novel by Patricia Melo. Murilo Benicio, Claudia Abreu, Natalia Lage and Jorge Doria are in the cast. It is a Brazilian production. The matter it treats is the neighbourhood's approval of killing; the film shows the violence as the work of a milieu rather than of a man. The film does not draw Maiquel as a villain; he is passive, carried along and never deciding. The narrative uses black humour and gives the violence with a ridiculous ordinariness. The narrative runs on a voiceover, with Maiquel telling the events. The film uses the middle and lower class districts of Rio as its locations. The women in the story do their own arithmetic. The ending closes like a story of success, and that is uncomfortable. The narrative comes in two parts and the second is darker. Its limit is tone; the narrative is merciless, the violence heavy, and the humour will feel cold to some viewers. Who it is for: viewers who like Brazilian crime films and black comedy. Who it is not for: it is violent, cynical, and the ending dark.