By means of a nonlinear structure that blurs the boundaries between past and present, consciousness and the unconscious, reality and dream, this experimental film tells the tragic story of Heitor (Marco Ricca), a melancholic writer, and his veterinarian girlfriend Julia (Alice Braga). After Julia breaks up with Heitor by telephone, he leaves in agony in his car to search for her, instead becoming trapped and lost in Sao Paulo’s labyrinthine streets and in his own delirium. A dizzying collage combines images of the vast metropolis with interior monologues, poetry verses, snippets of radio programs, childhood memories, scenes repeated from different points of view, and the ever-present beating of an aching heart. When the camera suddenly enters an ambulance after a mysterious accident and quickly cuts to the image of a supernova—an exploding star—the spectator begins to wonder whether all of this has been nothing more than the musings of a dying man.

Vera R. Coleman

Arizona State University