THREE TIGERS TIED A TIE TIGHTER (TRÊS TIGRES TRISTES)
GUSTAVO VINAGRE | BRÉSIL / BRAZIL | 2022 | 86 MIN | V.O. PORTUGAISE S.-T.A. / PORTUGUESE S.-T.EN.
Three queer youths meander a surreal, near-future São Paulo. As the city drifts into a pandemic-fueled forgetfulness, they face realities both personal and political – a devastating death, an HIV diagnosis, the systemic scourge of “craptalism” – and find comfort in the body as it is, in all its eroticism and incontinence.
As the government continues to fail them, forcing them into absurdly named phases of restriction, Isabella (Pereira), Pedro (Ribeiro), and Jonata (Vieira) create ties with their community, the young looking after the old and the weirdly wise teaching lessons to newly awakened consciences. And to not only survive but thrive, the cash-strapped find rent money in sex cam work and joy in free makeup sessions with the social media famous. With the audacious energy and asynchronous intercuts that helped win it a Teddy Award at the 72nd Berlinale, Gustavo Vinagre’s late-capitalist dystopia manages to be both phantasmagoric and hauntingly real. A man takes a phone call inside a bubble. An antique shop owner conjures an impromptu, orgasmic concert. “Many people suffer the consequences of great diseases.” And a darkly comedic vision emerges of impermanence and the art of moving on.
screening at Centre PHI | NOVEMBER 26TH 9PM
ONLINE (November 27th to December 1st)