VERDICT: A couple reflect on a failed pregnancy in the midst of the pandemic in Monica Lima’s tactile and delicate drama about the desire to nurture and propagate.
For people all around the world, life came to something approaching a standstill during the curtailed movement and social opportunities of the world’s various lockdowns caused by Covid-19. In Monica Lima’s beautifully observed new drama, Human Nature, a young couple are divided on how best to move forward after the failure of their latest attempt to conceive. They are torn between an innate urge to have a child and a creeping anxiety about bringing one into the world as it currently is. Surrounded by a flourishing garden they’ve cultivated; questions of procreation and propagation surround them in this delicate golden-hour snapshot of a couple at a crossroads.
“Maybe it’s enough,” says Xavier (Joao Vicente) when he consoles his wife, Alba (Crista Alfaiat) about their latest unsuccessful attempt to get pregnant. She insists that she wants to keep trying but it becomes clear that Xavier has his reservations. As a peacock roams the city streets and Xavier’s wider environmental concerns are brought up at dinner, the fragile equilibrium of their household – and the planet more broadly – seems to come into stark relief. Far from melodrama, though, Lima’s screenplay, written with Goncalo Branco, is patient and subtle; the tension remains authentically understated.
This is also, in part, due to the relationship depicted between Alba and Xavier, drawn as it is with such colour and kindness that its dilemmas – even when about something so significant – become a difficulty to address together, rather than a point of dramatic opposition. Both of them are seen interacting with small children, either from the neighbouring apartment of friends who visit for dinner, and their warmth as potential parents shines through. Their interactions with one another have a genuine physical intimacy that is, only in one moment, cooled by their disagreement. While their specific predicament is very personal, the film ultimately suggests they must address it as a unit and the message radiates forth, offering us all direction for the wider challenges that Human Nature posits as well.
Director: Monica Lima
Cast: Joao Vicente, Crista Alfaiat
Producers: Filipa Reis, Luise Hauschild
Screenplay: Goncalo Branco, Monica Lima
Cinematography: Faraz Fesharaki
Editing: Francisto Moreira
Sound Design: Paulo Lima
Venue: International Film Festival Rotterdam (Ammodo Tiger Short Competition)
In Portuguese
24 minutes
