“The past pursued me… though I couldn’t see it,” begins Portrait of a Certain Orient (Retrato de um Certo Oriente), Marcelo Gomes’ delicately wrought yet unexpectedly intense exploration of three young people in search of happiness and a fresh start in life.
Filled with natural poetry and a forceful sense of the lights and shadows that alternately gleam on and darken human affairs, the film nimbly compresses Milton Hatoum’s novel into archetypal scenes aimed at the emotional core. (It has points of resemblance to another Hatoum novel that was adapted by Sergio Machado in 2002, River of Desire.) Romantic and passionate, even in its realism about collective and personal tragedies, this exotic drama has more chances than most festival films to break out with wider audiences. It bowed in Rotterdam’s Big Screen Competition.
In his eighth film, Gomes returns to rural northern Brazil of the 1940s, the setting of his first film Cinema, Aspirin and Vultures, which became Brazil’s Oscar submission in 2005 and made him famous. Here again we find characters coming from an entirely different culture – in Portrait, they originate in Lebanon – struggling to adapt to the Amazon. Interestingly, it is not the awe-inspiring grandeur of nature or the wildness of the jungle, buzzy with insects and animals, that is the obstacle; it is the prospect of living in a much freer society where cultures and religions, Christians and Muslims, mingle and meld, and women have far greater autonomy.
World War II is just over and new wars are beginning in Lebanon, when the striking Emilie (Wafa’a Celine Halawi) and her possessive brother Emir (Zakaria Al Kaakour) decide to emigrate to Brazil. Actually it is Emir, a volatile personality not always in control of himself, who decides for both of them by selling the family house and busting Emilie out of the Catholic convent where she has been living. Al Kaakour and Halawi play the opening scenes like they were lovers, and it is not until clues are dropped about their parents having been killed by Muslim marauders that their true blood relationship is revealed. But a doubt has been planted about Emir’s loving, possibly incestuous looks at his sister, a doubt that only grows stronger as the film goes on.
Though she has been reluctantly dragged along on a sea voyage that will take them across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and up the Amazon River, Emilie soon finds a plus to life on the ship: she is irresistibly drawn to a handsome stranger on board. Omar (Charbel Kamel) at first appears to be a small-time Muslim trader, and when he learns she is unattached, he returns her interest. He has not reckoned with Emir, who is rude and hostile from the start.
But as spectacular and eerie sunsets shot in high contrast black and white make way for the brilliance of bright mornings, so do Emilie and Omar’s feelings transform into heightened passion. They are making their way up the Amazon to the city of Manaus when a steamy tryst between the two finally triggers Emir’s pent-up jealousy. It explodes in a violent scene that marks not the end of the story, but a definite turning point.
Gomes maintains wonderful control through thick and thin, using an expressive hand-held camera to inflame the dramatic and erotic moments without really showing much detail, and carefully stepping back from melodrama every time death approaches. The three young Lebanese actors bring naturalness to their roles, even in scenes that could easily have felt overly contrived, like the young couple’s first meeting with Omar’s dignified uncle and aunt, and especially in the touching final scenes. Al Kaakour is the most multi-faceted, revealing a pathetic depth behind Emir’s obstinate prejudice against his sister’s Muslim suitor that is repugnant and sad.
The message of religious and cultural tolerance beams – not always very subtly — through the supporting cast. Rosa Peixoto shines as a woman of the Amazon who befriends Emilie and takes her to an indigenous village threatened by white land-grabbers. Italian actor Eros Galbiati is charming and very p.c. as a gay photographer who is full of wisdom and compassion. His photos capture the poor and humble immigrants on their way to an unknown future, either determined like Emilie to shrug off the traumas of the war and move on, or caught in the web of their past beliefs like Emir.
Gomes’ regular DP Pierre de Kerchove uses black and white cinematography with mastery to create an original setting that can feel like some retro sci-fi film at times. A subtle music score credited to Mateus Alves, Piero Bianchi and Sami Bordokan ranges widely from stringed Arabic instruments to native Brazilian folk dances, subtly integrating the characters on a musical level, while they casually alternate dialogue in Arabic, French, Portuguese and Italian.
Director: Marcelo Gomes
Screenwriters: Marcelo Gomes, Maria Camargo, Gustavo Campos, based on a novel by Milton Hatoum
Cast: Wafa’a Celine Halawi, Charbel Kamel, Zakaria Al Kaakour, Eros Galbiati, Rosa Peixoto
Producers: Guilherme Coelho, Mariana Ferraz, Ernesto Soto Canny
Cinematography: Pierre de Kerchove
Editing: Karen Harley
Production design: Marcos Pedroso, Caterina Pepe
Costume design: Ro Nascimento, Maria Diaz, Fabio Cicolani
Music: Mateus Alves, Piero Bianchi, Sami Bordokan
Production companies: Matizar Filmes (Brazil) in association with Orjouane Productions (Lebanon), Bubble Projects (Brazil), VideoFilmes (Brazil)
Coproduced by Kavac Film (Italy), Gullane (Brazil), Misti Filmes (Brazil), Muiraquita Filmes (Brazil), Globo Filmes (Brazil), Canal Brasil
World sales: Matizar Filmes
Venue: Rotterdam Intl. Film Festival (Big Screen Competition)
In Arabic, French, Portuguese, Italian
92 minutes
