BERLINALE 2020 - Irmã (Sisters in the End of the World)
70th BERLINALE FILM FESTIVALVinícius Lopes and Luciana Mazeto's feature Irmã (Sisters in the End of the World) is a thematically ambivalent and enigmatic drama with an intensely claustrophobic narrative and wonderfully rich performances from the films two young leads in a coming-of-age ghost story.
Thematically and visually not too dissimilar from Richard Stanley's body horror Color Out of Space, Irmã – without the horror conventions – follows a similar story of family strength and vindication. Unlike Stanley's long-awaited feature, Irmã is a film that is not weighted with a strict, formulaic narrative or convention. To say that directing duo Lopes and Mazeto's film is enigmatic would be a slight understatement, Irmã is a film that, while having an easily followable plot, carries a sizable ambiguous and obscure direction.
Maria Galant and Anaïs Wagner lead the way as Ana and Julia, respectively, two sisters traveling across South America to find their father on the wish of their dying mother while a meteorite WF42 heads to collide with Earth. Galant and Wagner are tremendous here in conveying wonderfully evocative characters in what is, essentially, a multitude of genres and tones. On the one hand, this is a family drama while on the other there's a coming of age story and when evolved, it takes the form as an eerie ghost story. The performances effortlessly transcend into a distinctive tone and genre with simplistic ease, bringing an outstanding substance and gravity to their respective characters.
Irmã is a cluster of emotional and thematic anonymity. Themes of feminism, motherhood and family arise in sizable weight and depth but the ambiguity of where and what these themes take shape as are left for interpretation. The film's art and production design from Gabriela Burck perfectly echoes and personifies this thematic mood with utterly devilish and engaging results, coupled with tremendous cinematography from Carine Wallauer makes Irmã (Sisters in the End of the World) a dissonant but emotionally and visually rich feature.
