AQUARIUS: Vulnerable & Righteously Angry

Making a political film is a difficult art. With hot button issues likely losing all relevancy between the time of writing a screenplay and the film’s eventual cinematic release, it can be very easy for a well-intentioned, thought provoking film to become out of touch and out of date. However, on a global spectrum, the specific political implications of a film so apparent to the national viewer can easily get lost in translation, or appear entirely alien to the film itself upon research.

Such is the case of Aquarius, the excellent new film from director Kleber Mendonça Filho, which upon viewing appears to be simply a heartfelt look at the personal cost of gentrification – an issue as relevant to Brazilian society as it is to more prosperous nations internationally.

Making the Political Personal

In one of the finest performances given by any actress in the last year, Sonia Braga stars as Dona Clara, a retired music critic and breast cancer survivor living by the seafront in the city of Recife. She is the last remaining tenant of the Aquarius building, with all the former residents having signed an agreement effectively handing over their share of the building to a group of quietly sinister developers, led by the American educated Diego (Humberto Carrão).

Having lived in the building for three decades and with the property being part of the family for even longer, she isn’t willing to let go of her home – even as the proprietors try as many dirty tricks as possible to get her to move out. However, despite this David Vs Goliath backdrop, the film spends as much time as possible exploring the relationships between Dona Clara and the people in her life, across three distinctively operatic acts.

In recent years, many films have aimed to directly tackle the human cost of gentrification, yet often fall short when trying to simplify a complex issue into basic moral terms. Little Men, the 2016 film from director Ira Sachs, aimed to examine both sides of the argument, yet still fell slight and underdeveloped. Aquarius proves that it is only by affording this topic a quietly epic backdrop, spending more time developing a believable central character in the midst of the situation as opposed to merely dissecting the situation itself, is the only way this topic can be handled from a cinematic perspective.

This approach also ensures that Filho’s film will be granted a longevity that many other films tackling this subject will not; this is a brilliantly humane character study, blessed with a mercurial lead performance from Braga, that would be genuinely moving and bluntly honest even if it weren’t dealing with issues that rank high on society’s agenda.

Aquarius garnered controversy upon release in Brazil, due to the unintentional narrative similarities between the coup de e’tat perpetrated by the new owners of Dona Clara’s building and the ongoing political crisis in Brazil, where President Dilma Rouseff was impeached and replaced in power by her Vice President Michel Temer. This context is more nakedly apparent to Brazilian viewers and even then, it would be very easy to suggest the critics trying to draw clear comparisons between fact and fiction are clutching at straws somewhat.

Even though the director and cast have protested against this impeachment, this isn’t the way the film is political – in fact, it works best when divorced of broader implications and viewed solely as a heartfelt character study. This narrative could be happening anywhere in the world and still feel achingly relevant; there doesn’t need an impeachment process in reality to transform this in to a righteously angry masterwork. It is clearly deserving of that status regardless.

Vibrant and unmistakably human

In his second directorial feature, following 2012’s Neighbouring Sounds, Filho appears committed to delivering a perspective of Brazilian society not usually seen by audiences. He achieves this by starting many scenes directly focusing on a group of people or location immediately irrelevant to the story, his camera constantly zooming and refocusing in order to give us the bigger picture, eventually connecting this shot back to our heroine. This film may be primarily about one woman and her apartment building, but Filho wants us to still see a vibrant portrait of neighbourhood life – an initially jarring visual decision that ultimately has the desired effect of making this story feel more “lived in”.

In other sequences, he could be accused of being exploitative. We are bluntly shown Dona Clara’s naked form after breast cancer treatment, as well as many other parts of the human experience considered too vulnerable to ever depict in cinema. The entire narrative can be read about taking our vulnerability and finding strength through it – such as Dona Clara fighting back, despite being weakened by cancer and old age.

The film furthers this by showing Dona Clara as a sexually active presence; not only is it alien to see an older woman have a fruitful sex life and lived-in desires in cinema, it is somewhat phenomenal to see a breast cancer survivor continue to be fulfilled, with her sexual partners all treating her with respect. It is the rare film to be sexually open and still utterly respectful of the needs of both parties.

Braga’s leading performance dominates every frame of the film, and feels to have been left perennially underrated since Aquarius debuted at Cannes last year. Whereas critical attention was mostly towards the towering turns from Isabelle Huppert in as recently argued by our writer Kate Blair). Strip away her performance and the film is robbed of its emotional power – the most important element of the film, as this element ensures the end result transcends mere polemical hand-wringing, effortlessly transforming the political into the personal.

Conclusion

Aquarius isn’t a political film – it is an achingly human one, universally relatable in its portrayal of a woman fighting back against her vulnerabilities, anchored by one of the year’s strongest lead performances. Combined with a director who has managed to channel his anger at gentrification into a coherent character study, often recalling Pedro Almodovar stripped of his innate campiness, the film is an utter joy to behold.

Which great foreign language movies have fallen under the radar in the past few years? 

Aquarius recently received a limited theatrical release in the UK and has yet to be distributed in the US. All international release dates can be found here.