“Greetings from above” sends in the first scene of the film “The Blue Trail” A plane that a banner pulls behind it – the slogan is written on it: “Our country flies into the future.” The word “above” is twice the connotation here: on the one hand, the disembodied male voice, which is in the euphoric, suggesting tone The residents of a small Brazilian industrial city speaks in the middle of the Amazon area, so that simply the air through which the plane moves. Actually, “above”, you can immediately refer to a corrupt political elite that “looks down there” to the population and has their lives.
Of course, director Gabriel Mascaro (“Neon Bull”) has very good reasons to paint his metaphors with a thick brush. Four years of reign of the nationalist and right -wing extremist Jair Bolsonaro – and thus four years of social and environmental policy – inevitably left their mark. In the meantime, of course, not only in Latin America, but around the globe ideologies that are essentially based on excluding top-and-unomings.
Tereza refuses to be deported to a senior colony.
In “The Blue Trail”, Mascaro thinks about possible excesses that could drive neoliberal economic systems and unlimited capitalism if you let them be granted. His fourth feature film is located in an unspecified future that, apart from glass -coated electronic Bibles, which will later play a role in the film, does not seem so futuristic. But soon bizarre -looking events reveal that we are in a dystopia.
The protagonist Tereza (Denise Weinberg) receives a visit from a government official who initially attaches an oversized laurel wreath to the outside of her house and then handed her a medal – “for her age”. Because Tereza is 77 and thus “living national.” But it quickly becomes clear that their merits should not be honored here – rather the government wants to get it out of the way, just like all older people. From the age of 80, they are removed into special senior colonies so that the work performance of the younger ones (the social professions and geriatric care obviously no longer includes) is not reduced. Economic growth stands above everything else, “productivity disability” is not just a common word, but is also considered a punishment.
A race against time
The age limit has just been reduced, so that Tereza no longer stays for three years, but only seven days until the so -called “old detention” snatches it. For example, while the grandson of a deployed senior citizens is loudly protesting his violent resettlement, Tereza's daughter doesn't seem to have a problem with having to say goodbye to her mother soon. But the older lady refuses to simply accept her fate – and so she does everything she can to fulfill her last big dream: she wants to sit on a plane once in “The Blue Trail” not only unwant is, but also a longing object and the symbol of freedom.
However, this is easier said than done. She constantly has to show her ID, her stones are constantly being put in the way – also by her own daughter, who is now her guardian. Thanks to the acquaintance with Cadu (Rodrigo Santoro), who earns his money with illegal transports, she succeeds in opening all resistance to a trip over the Amazon, towards the place where an ultra -light aircraft is supposed to wait for her.
Tereza is finally on the journey.
If we see from the top of how the tropical body of water literally seems to meaf through the jungle, or the camera slides just above the water surface to follow the river course and the boat, then Mascaro succeeds, the original landscape and to wrestle down the natural color and lighting moods of a sensual quality. In general, “The Blue Trail” has a lot to offer: from a slaughterhouse in which dozens of crocodiles hang down from the ceiling, to a Lost Place in the jungle full of surreal sculptures and strange plants to a fish fight in close -up.
However, the more the film slips into the episodic, the more it begins to faith. So he changes from a warning satire to a jungle adventure with a mystical note. The latter becomes clear when we find out what the title is all about: This refers to a snail that separates a blue fluid consciousness.
Between adventure and metaphors
After all, “The Blue Trail” develops into a (very warm) hangout film: Tereza meets a woman of the same age who bought her freedom with money and drifts aimlessly with her boat from village to village-an encounter that not only friendship , but maybe even creates something like love.
What could feel in a better film after dramaturgical openness, however, has a undecided effect at Mascaro, especially since he never fully brushes off the slope, his pictures and scenes to build all too obviously out of spoke in metaphors. As a decided, political film, in turn, remains too and harmless between all the human encounters.
Conclusion: “The Blue Trail” begins as a dystopian satire with an exciting concept, but is increasingly losing itself in episodic encounters and clear metaphors. Despite some impressive images, Gabriel Mascaro's fourth feature film remains undecided and harmless to really captivate – neither as a political allegory nor as an adventure drama.
We saw “The Blue Trail” as part of the Berlinale 2025, where it was shown as part of the official competition.