Visions du Réel 2020 - Amor Fati
Visions du RéelClaudia Varejao’s latest film, Amor Fati, walks a delicate line. With over ten different stories in the mix, scenes and sequences gently shuffle into one another, each of them self-contained while remaining mysterious and incomplete. The overall theme is the nature of devotion, regardless of whether someone is communing with another being, their art or their surroundings.
The title roughly translates to “fated love”, which gives these portraits an air of timelessness and predetermination. This description of love is something just about everyone seeks during a lifetime, but only a few seem to find it. Amor Fati provides a gentle counterpoint, featuring people who have found that kind of love and how it is a part of their daily lives.
Tackling this kind of subject matter seems daunting, perhaps impossible, but Varejao narrows the scope by choosing subjects who live in her native Portugal or just beyond its borders. Every person the viewer sees is deeply connected to a practice or whomever they are sharing the screen. In some cases, they may reflect or resemble one another, with similarities in their hair, coloring, features and body language. These similarities are not only explored visually but through dialogue and text, although Varejao defers from giving too much away. One of the film’s subjects, a blind man named Ringo, reads aloud from a sheet of Braille: “They say that the faces of those who love each other tend to become similar over time. People attract and repel each other like chemical elements. But how can we recognize the right person and path?”
It is hard to say. In one sequence, the viewer watches a pregnant mother guide her young daughter through several rites of passage: putting on makeup, dancing and having conversations about boys. Afterwards, they attend a wedding celebration, watching as some men pose for pictures with a bewildered and unhappy bride. In another scene, a pair of twins attend a tarot reading together, wearing matching outfits and listening intently. “For you, being apart is like not being able to breathe,” they are cautioned, to which they silently nod in agreement. The film cuts to them joyfully laughing as they play arcade games side by side.
Other forms of connection populate the film. There are a pair of pale young boys sporting dresses, two elderly sisters, a family of classical musicians and VHS footage of a mother and her growing daughters. There are also subjects communing with animals and nature. A man and his horse. A drag performer and his baby pug. A falconer and his hawk.
These fleeting moments of kinship and intimacy unfold as portraits without much dialogue, each of them tentatively linked through editing. They might be connected by an image, like hands touching, the appearance of a horse, or objects like handheld fans, tiaras or instruments. In other moments it is the sound design, which is often tactile but subtle, underscoring the quiet moments when the subjects are genuinely relaxed and unguarded.
By the end of Amor Fati, the viewer feels immersed in a variety of experiences, but there is no pronounced meaning or significance, leaving its interpretation open to the individual viewer. Most of the significant revelations are saved until the end, highlighting a cycle of death and rebirth, with individual stories ending while others are just beginning or starting all over again.