Rosalita (2017) Movie Review

Just last week, I was lucky enough to get to review Brazilian director Luciano de Azevedo’s short Cabrito, a tale of family, food and responsibility that was rich in symbolism and heavy in mental anguish. I thought it was dark, gritty, beautiful and horrifying. With much anticipation, last night I was able to check out the second part in the Cabrito trilogy, titled Rosalita, starring Samir Hauaji, Nino de Barros, Sandra Emilia, Tairone Vale and Luciana Fins. Did this one hold up to my expectations?

Taking place a few months after the events in Cabrito, Rosalita delves even deeper into the broken and twisted psyche of the nameless man (Samir Hauaji). We get to be a fly on the wall as he descends even deeper into madness. The opening shot of him lying in bed next to the maggot-ridden corpse of his dead mother is bad enough – that is, until he kisses her good morning. Things spiral downhill as the man fights a deep-seated urge to kidnap and torture women, all the while trying to disentangle himself from the warped version of religion instilled in him by his acid-tongued mother.

I was glad to see a bit more of this mysterious and fractured Brazilian soul. However, I’m certain that I do not know what the heck was going on in Rosalita. The story needs to be fleshed out and explained a bit more. Because it was only 18 minutes long, I felt a lot of it had been left on the cutting room floor to keep the film festival length. While I understand that the man is insane and we are not supposed to really know what he’s thinking, I felt that the actions of others in the movie were unclear and confusing as well. Although I have to admit, the shot of the man sliding over the car roof to find the girl hiding inside as he whistled… that sent a goose walking over my grave for sure.

Says the director: Rosalita is “…un crossover entre decadencia religiosa, la violencia bestial y la psicosis preocupante.” (translation: “a crossover between religious decadence, bestial violence and worrying psychosis.”) So there you go. Watch this short for yourself if you get the chance and write an explanation in the comments for me.