Blue Blood (Sangue Azul), dir. Lirio Ferreira, 2014 Brazil - Berlinale Panorama 

by Martin I. Petrov 

Vibrant images, breathtaking sea horizons, a passionate macho Latino and some romance in the background - is there anything else to ask for from Brazilian cinema? 

Acclaimed director Lirio Ferreira presents a story for contemporary filmgoers, keeping it at heart a traditional old-style Brazilian romanzo. Pedro, a handsome young circus performer, returns to his home town after a long absence. While he fascinates everyone with his “cannon-man” performance, deep down Zolah - as is his circus name - has long kept desires, remaining unfulfilled since his early teenagehood, when his mother sent him away with the circus. 

The longer he remains on his home island in Brazil, the passion for his first love springs back from the ashes, generating an array of secrets, pain and emotions that finally reach the surface. 

Ferreira establishes a connection between cinema and the circus, both on parallel lines coexisting as two constantly evolving forms that need a rebirth. The circus is shown at its full glory, as if coming from a forgotten era, and it absorbs you, it takes you deeper into the story, but remains a delicately inscribed cinematic experience as well. The director’s strong relationship with the camera delivers great panoramic shots and detailed close-ups that at points flirt with documentary and give a refreshing, natural touch. 

Zolah finally confronts his past, in the face of his beloved sister, tangled with him in a cosmic, powerful exchange of love, passion and affection; and his mother, who is seen now as a worn out figure, seeking for atonement that can come only from the depth of her son’s emotional breakage. When this form of catharsis is reached at their home, with the two of them exchanging sharp memories followed by a prolonged moment of silence - they separate to surrender, each to their own pain. 

The first scenes are black and white, showing the process of staging the circus. Then, suddenly, a splash of colours covers the screen when the ‘cannon-man’ performs his breathtaking show. Old and new Brazilian hits are bursting loudly, upgrading the erotic tension into an unmissable latino voyage; Blue blood gives a one way ticket to this cut-off island in Brazil where time has stopped, reality doesn’t really matter and romance is sweetly tickling all senses. 

The mystery surrounding Pedro and his inner cosmos is as infiltrating as the characters in Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the lake (L’ inconnu du lac), where the personal and emotional isolation of the lake’s visitors and their hyper-active sexual activity are disturbingly absorbing as Pedro’s struggle to reconnect with his past, while faith is playing a grotesque game. But the question still remains open: Do we define destiny or destiny defines us?