Written and Directed by Iuli Gerbase
Starring Renata de Lélis, Eduardo Mendonça and Helena Becker
Running time 1 hour and 45 minutes
Premiered at Sundance Film Festival

by Rosalie Kicks Editor in Chief, Old Sport

“It will go away…”

I was not too keen on watching a flick that centered around quarantining after a pink cloud rolls into town, but seriously, what else better do I have going on?

Despite the eerily coincidental and dismal subject matter hitting so close to our current circumstance, I am happy to report that, by the end of the film, I realized I found a new director to keep tabs on. Brazilian writer and director Iuli Gerbase not only made an impressive feature debut, but I kinda sorta think she may be a bit of a clairvoyant. The film was shot and completed in 2019 prior to the pandemic, yet is a tale that many of us will find as old as time.

After a wild night out on the town, Giovana (Renata de Lélis) finds herself in a hammock atop a roof deck intertwined with a man she met at the bar the previous evening. They are awoken by the sounds of sirens and announcements to head indoors and to close all the windows. After educating themselves via the local news broadcasts they learn that a toxic gas, known as the pink cloud, has floated its way over the city. People are instructed to remain inside their current locations until further notice. This would include bakeries, coffee shops, grocery stores, etc. as going outdoors will result in death. Phone calls are made to family, friends and, initially, the overall demeanor is calm. Some are even partaking in dance parties. The consensus seems to be: it will go away...soon.

Sound familiar?

Something Gerbase manages to do with this story so effectively is the representation of time. Days quickly turn into weeks, turn into months and eventually a span of years. Through the course of this story, the main focus is the relationship of Giovanna and Yago (Eduardo Mendonça) along with their outside connections such as family and friends. For Yago, it’s his elderly father that suffers from a debilitating illness that, fortunately, has been quarantined with his live-in nurse. While Giovanna tries to stay in touch with her young sister that has found herself in an unsettling situation. Something I appreciated about Gerbase’s methods is that she chose to only give just enough information and does not bog her audience down with extraneous details. This gives the viewer the opportunity to draw their own conclusions but also place them in the character's shoes. There is no need to understand the intricacies of how they obtain food supplies from a tube that is magically installed or how products continue to be made for that matter. It is understood that it just happens and, well, there’s far more interesting things to worry about.

There are people that come to accept living with the cloud, which I found to be quite similar to our present place in time. Individuals that find this new way of life to be the new normal. This is actually one of the major rifts between Giovana and Yago, and especially becomes more complicated upon the arrival of a child. Giovana turns to a virtual life through the use of a headset to help her cope, which only causes her to become more distant from her somewhat accidental family. It also brings her to not being able to face the harsh reality that the cloud is not, and may not, ever going to leave.

There is so much within this film to commend, from the smartly written screenplay, superb acting and incredible use of space. The entire film is based within one location, only cutting away during facetime phone calls or to a view outdoors from the window and yet, the cinematography does such a wonderful job of capturing the space in inventive ways. For a feature debut, this story strikes me as incredibly courageous and I can’t wait to see what comes next for Iuli Gerbase.