The Blue Trail
In Gabriel Mascaro’s somewhat meandering dystopian drama, Denise Weinberg is nevertheless quite wonderful as a 77-year-old Brazilian woman who embarks on a journey through the Amazon.
Image courtesy of Metfilm Distribution.
by MANSEL STIMPSON
The one great thing about this film from Brazil is the casting of the central role. The actress to whom the film is deeply indebted is 69-year-old Denise Weinberg. She was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1956 and has won no less than three awards for her performance as Tereza, the 77-year-old heroine of The Blue Trail. In Brazil she is known as a distinguished stage actress as well as for her work in film and television which now amounts to over forty appearances. For many who see The Blue Trail she will be an unknown face, but immediately she appears you recognise that she has the ability to engage you instantly and her nature is such that it promptly arouses sympathy and concern for Tereza.
Despite her age Tereza is still working yet she knows that she is living in a country where the authorities forcefully require those aged eighty to retire (the film is set not in the present day but in the near future). Furthermore, unless you are rich enough to buy your way out of it, the form that this retirement takes is to be sent to a colony for the aged which may officially be a place where one is cared for but which in practice could well be something far more sinister. Tereza, who lives alone, can at least tell herself that she has three years to go before this fate awaits her. But then she learns that the authorities have brought down the stipulated age to seventy-five so she qualifies immediately.
The situation is quickly and effectively established in Gabriel Mascaro's film on which he shares the writing credit with Tibério Azul. Recognising what is set to happen to her, Tereza is sufficiently spirited and healthy to enter into a plan to escape. She has always dreamt of one day flying in a plane and she tries to book a ticket for a flight only to discover that, since her age is shown on the papers needed for this, she is now prohibited from flying. However, she hears that in the port of Itacoatiara it is possible to buy an ultra-light aircraft and accordingly comes up with a fresh plan to go there. She seeks out a man with a banana boat which could get to her to this destination. That man is Cadu (Rodrigo Santoro). He is clearly involved in dubious practices but is willing to take a passenger who pays well and, importantly, he is genuinely sympathetic.
Shot in the old 4:3 ratio but still allowing one to appreciate the attractive scenery as the odd couple goes down river, The Blue Trail looks set to be a pleasing film and it even reminded one critic of John Huston's classic The African Queen. What is clear is that, despite its dystopian setting, this film is not a futuristic work as such, that element simply being present to render credible a state which gets rid of its older citizens while claiming that it does so as an economic measure. Indeed, it is rather ironical that when it comes to comparisons one recalls the 1983 Japanese masterpiece by Shōhei Imamura, The Ballad of Narayama: there the film went back in time and not forward in order to paint a persuasive portrait of a poor village in which everyone who reached the age of seventy was expected to ease the scarcity of food by climbing a mountain where they would die. That work built up to the time when its central female character was expected to make that sacrifice and, as the tale unfolded, it proved extremely engrossing.
Unfortunately, there is no comparable grip here. The early emphasis on authoritarian rule (“it’s the system”) may suggest that this work possesses a political edge, but that aspect is somewhat left behind. If the emphasis is more on Tereza’s spirited resistance, an attitude seen as all the more admirable in a woman of her age, that still suggests that her endeavour to get away will be dramatically compelling. Admittedly, I had read comments which suggested that the piece was episodic, but I had expected that the episodes would come up within the context of the shared journey downstream. Instead, we find that the narrative repeatedly sets up characters and then moves on. Far from remaining a central figure, Cadu suddenly drops out of the story. He is replaced by scenes with Michely (Karol Medeiros) who is supposed to be able to supply Tereza with the craft she needs but who then proves unreliable. Although Tereza decides in these circumstances to return home, her daughter Joana (Clarissa Pinheiro), who is now her official guardian, has her arrested so that she can indeed be taken away to the colony. However, Tereza makes another escape bid.
The subsidiary characters tend to play a very small role but then Tereza happens to meet an elderly woman who has inherited a missionary’s boat, Roberta (Miriam Socarras). This woman befriends Tereza having herself been rich enough to obtain a permit to travel which has prevented the colony from being her destination too. This character, a person who sells bibles and is nicknamed 'the Nun’, proves to be quite as independent as Tereza and in the event not religious at all. These two become companions and Roberta is given considerable screen time although the film pointedly refrains from making any clear statement as to any sexual attraction that may be present in their relationship.
In any case, the film changes tone to find climactic drama when Tereza makes Roberta's boat the prize in a win-or-lose bet in a notorious gambling den named ’The Golden Fish’. This is partly the result of behaviour brought on by the hallucinatory slime of the blue drool snail which, when dropped into one's eyelids, is also said to enable you to foresee the future. This element has first came up as something believed in by Cadu and is now brought back in to contribute to the film’s dramatic climax. The state of those affected by it is represented first and foremost by what is heard on the soundtrack. That's a reasonable approach, but this aspect of the tale hardly seems to belong in the same world as the one that we saw in the film’s opening scenes. By the work’s close the passages which emphasise this drug state and the meandering nature of the tale have taken us far away from the potentially touching personal story with which it started out. Indeed, it is difficult to believe that many audiences will do other than feel a real sense of ultimate disappointment in consequence. At the same time the wonderful presence of Denise Weinberg is a consolation that will not be forgotten.
Original title: O último azul.
Cast: Denise Weinberg, Rodrigo Santoro, Miriam Socarras, Adanilo, Rosa Malagueta, Clarissa Pinheiro, Karol Medeiros, Diego Bauer, Daniel Ferrat, Dimas Mendonça, Isabela Catão, Erismar Fernandes.
Dir Gabriel Mascaro, Pro Rachel Daisy Ellis and Sandino Saravia Vinay, Screenplay Gabriel Mascaro and Tibério Azul with Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega, Ph Guillermo Garza, Art Dir Dayse Barreto, Ed Sebastián Sepúlveda and Omar Guzmán, Music Memo Guerra, Costumes Gabriella Marra.
Desvia/Cinevinay/Quijote Films/Viking Film/Globo Filmes-Metfilm Distribution.
86 mins. Brazil/Mexico/Netherlands/Chile. 2025. US Rel: 3 April 2026. UK Rel: 17 April 2026. Cert. 15.