Linha de Passe

Offered without an English translation of its title, this Brazilian film presents the story of a family in Sao Paulo, consisting of four sons and their pregnant mother, over the course of six months in 2007. It is not far-fetched to assume that the filmmakers wanted to create, at least in part, a social document of what it was to be a Paulista at that time. We have separate story threads for each family member, which overlap to various degrees. Switches between these threads is well achieved, and the film hangs together well.

Central to the film’s stylistic identity is the use of music to signal to the audience the mood of the individuals on screen, and how these may differ between individuals at any given time. When this happens, all other sounds are gradually muted and an impressionistic bass-heavy acoustic guitar-led piece of ambient music comes to the soundtrack’s fore. The role of the this ambient music as the film’s theme is established early on, when it’s first notes accompany the appearance of the film’s title onscreen, marking the end of the introductory prologue. Thus established, the use of this theme at later junctures engenders a reflective mood.

The opening sequence has a lot to do, given the filmmakers’ choice to present of the family’s story as several more or less distinct trajectories, and it achieves the necessary introduction of each of the characters and their place in the Paulistan milieu. In the prologue, we see many Paulistan faces, and a notable emphasis on differences and similarities between the fanatical fans of the prestigious Corinthians FC soccer team, and the transported churchgoers, many of whom are beside themselves with emotion. Here and throughout, we witness the ethnic diversity of Sao Paulo, and by implication, Brazil, and this theme is alluded to at several instances when story’s focus shifts to the family’s youngest child, whose father was black.

The photography is grainy and scenes and shots are typically short, and the same angle is rarely seen twice. We see many close shots of faces, often to best effect when the subject is not a main character, at which times the film has a documentary flavour. Real footage of Corinthians FC and real news footage is seen once or twice, enhancing the realism of the plot and the characters’ circumstances. This is not unecessary because there is sometimes an palpable stageiness when the brothers interact, although this is not often. Given the documentary flavour, it is not surprising that soccer and futsal are prominent, and these scenes are convincing, more or less, and the filmmakers’ point about the professional game in Brazil is well made.

No-one watching this film would like to change places with the Brazilian family. Despite the fact that they function reasonably well, we are never allowed to forget that their place in Paulistan society is not a nice place to be. Nowhere is the exploitation of the weak more pityingly evident than among the evangelical churchgoers, who are encouraged to contribute money with the promise that they will “reign in heaven”. When we finally leave the characters to their respective fates, some more tinged with magic realism than others, we do so without a sense of resolution, nor of optimism, because we have been shown that attaining their best of all possible worlds will be a long shot.

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