GRADE: 8.5
A poor family in the Northeast of Brazil (Fabiano, the father; Sinhá Vitória, the mother; their 2 children and a dog called Baleia) wander about the barren land searching for a better place to live, with food and work. But the drought and misery destroy their hopes.
Director: Nelson Pereira dos Santos
Country of Origin: Brazil
Thoughts:
The heat, dust, and desolation seem to break the fourth wall in Vidas Secas, an unrelentingly grim film about an impoverished family of four and their dog, wandering through the drought-scorched land of northeastern Brazil in search of a better way of life. So miserably unfortunate are they that an episode of indentured servitude feels like a step up. And yet despite the desperate measures the husband and wife are reduced to, nothing in the film is quite as achingly moving as the culminating scene involving their beloved dog, Baleia—a sequence that felt almost like the reverse of Au Hasard, Balthasar‘s finale. Unlike Balthasar, whose difficult life comes to an end peacefully, in a meadow, surrounded by protective sheep, Baleia dies alone, feeling betrayed by his caretakers, watching the desert critters scurry as he longs to chase them down. There’s a hopelessness in this moment that devastates and seems to foretell the fate of the family, as they set off yet again to find a better life, with nearly no dreams left to motivate them.