Jogo das Decapitações

Sergio Bianchi's latest film closes a cicle that began in 1979 with his first feature film, the underground "Maldita Coincidência" of which is an integral part of this new story revolving conflict of ideals and conflict of generations. Like many of his other films, Bianchi criticises society, people, the class struggles, politics and the false morality that comes from all sectors of Brazilian life and how one tries to be included in a society that has a huge tendency for rejection of everything that doesn't fit the rule. I always love the passion he brings to the debate with his films, but this one was very critical in some aspects and the one I enjoyed the least - but it's quite good, provocative and insightful for those with eyes and minds to see it.

Our troubled "hero" is Leandro (Fernando Alves Pinto), your typical borgeouise college student in his early 30's, destined to present a brilliant history thesis for his professor (Antônio Petrin) related to the military regime and the struggle faced by the survivors of torture and prison. His mom (Clarisse Abujamra) was such a survivor, a former member of a political resistance group who's waiting for government compensation and she now works with a social group who brings the victims stories to light. During his research, he becomes obsessed with an artsy rebellious filmmaker named Jairo Mattos (João Velho during younger years, Paulo César Peréio during his senior years), who vanished into obscurity after being imprisoned during the regime in the 1970's due to a sex scandal and as a current prisoner after the murder of his wife in the late 1990's. Both situations are followed by Leandro since he tracks down people from the past to talk more about the man and if possible to find a copy of a censored film of Jairo that possibly created a great controversy with the military; and for the actual time, Jairo is part of a terrible prison riot where prisoners keep beheading hostages and other inmates if their demands are not met - hence the significant title "Jogo das Decapitações" ("The Beheading Game").

The real conflict is with this confused and critical main character. He does not attract the sympathy from viewers neither makes us understand (or accept) his change as the story progresses. At first, he's a curious student who asks his mom all the facts about subversive groups of her time, then we learn of how a screw up he is with each job he is given and how full of contempt he is with mankind, society and it reaches a nervous breakdown where he keeps on fighting his mother and all the work she's doing for people like herself, survivors of a tragic time in history and he praises the crazed filmmaker (of whom we learn about his connection with Leandro, but I won't spoil the fun). Somehow, the past is more important than the present, which is a catalyst of so many horrific tragedies of which he can't escape and can't react (also deeply rooted in his dreams/nightmares where he's always put up against a situation of which he cannot act. The words won't come out, the action will not happen). And he's such a palayzed character with a passive-aggressive behavior that you keep wondering how far can he go with his research about Jairo and when things will turn around for him in following a mystery man's past into the current present. It's a really hateful character to be around and to form a connection, and that can alienate viewers in seeing the larger good picture Bianchi creates while talking about people and their relation to society and history.

On the other side of the coin we have his best friend Rafael (Silvio Guindane, amazing), a cynical and ultra-realist man who challenges everyone around him in discussing theories and ideas about a perfect society that defies notions between capitalism and communism, and in one breakdown moment he even exposes the cowardice of Leandro during a class. He's an interesting character opposed to rules and social conventions yet he doesn't find a meaningful answer to his questionings, he just criticises everything and doesn't move one inch to change the world or get followers to his ideals. It's a very unusual friendship, somehow they understand each other and the world around them but they're just indifferent spectators of the chaos who can't alter the facts and the craziness around them, highlighted during a tense situation where a driver is brutally killed by a mob after hitting a pedestrian, and a co-worker of Leandro instantly films the killing.

As stated earlier, it's a full circle for Bianchi where he returns to his film debut, here played out as a fictional movie within the movie used as fragments for the censored work of Jairo Mattos. The 1979 movie tells about a group of misfits living on an abandoned house of which they are more concerned in creating revolutionary acts rather than remove the garbage from the place. Bianchi picks moments from the film which seems to present a speech from the crazed filmmaker and adds plenty of curiosity and mistery to Leandro as the plot moves ahead. The pseudo-intellectuals of the 1970's haven't changed one bit in the early 2010's and the director's message addresses how shallow they are when it comes to relate themselves with the world and around themselves. There's battles to be fought, there's plenty of obstacles while dealing with a society filled with injustices and social contrasts in the abysm faced by those who have and those who have not. Yet they were non conformist living under critical political times; our latest characters live through different times and only hear about the past through people who lived and survived the period, and despite learning about it they manage to deconstruct the painful yet valuable experiences of a distant generation, mocking without care as evidenced on the scene where Rafael and a group of activists destroy the controversial exposition conducted by Leandro's mother where objects and methods of torture are displayed to new audiences, in an almost voyeuristic way where the young rebel questions about its importance and some masochism from the victims of the dictatorship.

All those great themes presented with the shock between past and present are great enough to provide excellent discussions about everything shown here. But does the movie makes itself accessible to audiences? Sort of. While I was hooked about its elements and progression, I couldn't help but feeling a little disoriented with some things, even though I love controversy, the more the better, but I think Bianchi went a little overboard, there's too much one can handle. Some situations are very believable, but others are far coincidental. On a more elaborated level, it's hard to make a movie where you don't care about the characters (since Bianchi is a master with such ideas, I always find some hard characters to like). Our lead is a good actor but his character is quite hateful and the people around him isn't any better - the mother is someone we can relate, except for the fact she accepts and embraces her son's laziness in a painful way.

I won't enter into the symbolism brought on by the title, since the literal image of the cut off heads speak great shocking volumes here. It's haunting and realistic as it can be - though the moment as captured and shown by a TV network is completely unrealistic. In a way, I see it as a metaphor for people losing their minds, losing their conscience and acting as if there's no tomorrow and everything is allowed. And the final sequence proves it well with an insane act by our loser hero.

It's been almost a decade of this film and Bianchi is missed in action, he has not returned to make another project. I'm missing him very dearly, and I wouldn't want this to be his final film. This is qute good, but we need one more. 7/10.