The Blue Trail

The White Rabbit takes the form of a magic snail in Gabriel Mascaro's latest, a vibrant, picaresque journey in Wonderland for its 77-year-old protagonist. Set in a near-future Brazil where senior citizens are shipped off to distant colonies to maximise production, The Blue Trail follows factory worker Tereza (Denise Weinberg), who opposes the government-mandated segregation. Armed with nothing but a roll of banknotes and sheer determination, she flees to fulfil her dream to fly in a plane for the first time. To find a pilot, Tereza embarks on an expedition through the Amazon tributaries, where she encounters peculiar characters and creatures while soaking in the defiant beauty of her exploited land and rediscovering the sensorial possibilities of a body she refuses to let be commodified.

The Blue Trail, co-written by Mascaro with Tibério Azul, is an urgent, hypnotic voyage into the flesh and brains of a character whose fate is all but sealed. Not just trudging along a husk that’s inevitably decaying, Tereza inhabits her figure with electric energy, flipping the stale narrative that equates old age with a mortal stillness. 

Unconvincingly sketched in the first act, the film's dystopian elements are far less intriguing than the relationships Tereza forges with a trio of free agents she encounters, played by Rodrigo Santoro, Adanilo, and Miriam Socorrás. Particularly vibrant is Socorrás's no-nonsense yet bubbly 'nun lady' Roberta, who bounces off Tereza with surprising chemistry, their alchemy driving a life-affirming celebration of being mistresses of their own destiny.

Released 17 Apr by MetFilm Distribution; certificate 12A