The Blue Trail

The Brazilian government has concluded that the best way to care for their elderly population is to send them all to a colony when they reach eighty. "Tereza" (Denise Weinberg) is a mere seventy-seven when she gets the call up - and she's not remotely interested in wearing a nappy for the rest of her life. She has plans. She wants to fly a plane. Her more pedestrian efforts to satisfy this demand are thwarted by her daughter who has to give permission for her to do pretty much anything. Undaunted, she takes the last wage check she gets from the abattoir where she worked and convinces boatman "Cadu" (Rodrigo Santoro) to take her up river in search of a micro-light (also banned!). It turns out he engages in some illicit activities of his own and is also prone to doing a bit of the old Optrex with the blue drool from a rare snail. He thinks the ensuing hallucinogenic state will reveal his future. All it does for her is make her realise she is going to have to go back home. With seemingly no option now, she makes one last grasp for freedom by hiding away in a Portaloo and then befriending another lady of the river. "Roberta" (Miriam Socarrás) makes quite a good living selling electronic bibles to the faithful at 250 Réals a time, and she takes pity on this escapee and so off they set on some adventures of their own set against the pristine backdrop of the rain forest. Aside from reminding us that many amongst the elderly still have plenty of life left in them, this also depicts quite a touching story of a woman whose life, hitherto, has centred around others and that now she has tipped her toe in the waters of freedom she is addicted to it's adrenalin. It also serves as a reminder to the children of those pensioners that caring for them might require a degree of effort rather than just abrogating any responsibility to the state. Along the way it introduces a healthy degree of scepticism about religious faith; she learns how to pilot a boat and there is even a fish-fight that wouldn't have looked out of place in a "007" movie. Weinberg delivers personably with both of her travelling companions and I did quite enjoy the simplicity of the denouement.