Director: Dan Biurrum
Writer: Dan Biurrum & Mari Biurrum
Cast: Danilo Martim, Diego Rodda, Clodd Dias & Danilo Castro
Running time: 25mins
Film festivals are expensive – and so they often struggle to break even, let alone make a profit. With submission fees often posing as the only dependable source of revenue that many festivals have access to, that can make granting waivers difficult.
Stories told by artists working on a shoe-string budget, or who are hit by censorship, or subjected to international sanctions, still need a platform, though. That’s why Indy Film Library’s Saturday Matinees series has returned for a fifth season.
Over this most recent run of matinees, IFL is showcasing work from places where monetary and legal constraints have prevented the free and easy communication of their artistic or political visions.
The final film in our free-to-view programme is FArDADO, a short LGBT+ drama from Brazil-based filmmaker Dan Biurrum. Co-written with Mari Biurrum, the film serves up an unforgettable slice of heartbreak, amid its complex and moving portrait of a military policeman at war with himself.
Gustavo (Danilo Martim) spends his days in a patrol car, alongside Edimar (Diego Rodda) – fiercely loyal to him as a fellow cop, but hateful, intensely homophobic man in every other on-screen interaction. While he undoubtedly does feel in some sense, Edimar has his back, he is in no doubt this sense of camaraderie would vanish the moment the truth about his sexuality comes to the surface.
Into this volatile situation steps Paolo (Danilo Castro), a regular at Gustavo’s local bar. Struggling to keep his distance, Gustavo nevertheless finds himself inescapably drawn to Paolo – while the increasingly suspicious Edimar watches from the periphery.
It is a narrative formula that, if we are honest, is not especially new – and the chances are anyone but a complete newcomer to narrative cinema will clock the direction the story is heading early on. But that is not something which ever detracts from the film’s delivery of that arc: while you might easily remember the last time you saw this kind of tale, you will struggle to think of another occasion you saw it put together this well. Flawless performances – from the inner turmoil portrayed by Martim, to the complex hypocrisy portrayed by Rodda – along with tightly balanced pacing, and writing that gets the balance between realism and drama spot on, mean this is a filmmaking team people ought to be paying attention to whenever they release their follow-up.
At the same time, it is hardly the fault of the film that this kind of story remains relevant, even if it isn’t ‘new’ anymore. As the credits roll, the saddest reflection on what has gone before is that – despite decades of apparent ‘progress’ – the attitudes and conflicts on display remain depressingly mainstream.
The film will be available to view for free in full from 09:00 UK time on Saturday the 16th of May, until the end of Sunday, via our Saturday Matinees theatre page. Viewers will also be invited to rate the film out of five, to help determine the winner of this Saturday Matinees season.
As the film is still trying to gain access to other festivals, the page is password protected. Use the code IFLMATINEE26 to access the film.