Maya Da-Rin’s extraordinary film details the intimate life of an Indigenous family in the Brazilian city of Manaus.
The urban world simmers with magic in “The Fever,” Maya Da-Rin’s meditative feature about an Indigenous family in Manaus, Brazil. The middle-aged Justino (Regis Myrupu), a native of the Desana tribe, works as a security guard at a cargo port, while his enterprising daughter, Vanessa (Rosa Peixoto), is about to leave her job as a nurse to go to medical school on a scholarship.
Da-Rin quietly observes their routines of work and home, intertwining two elliptical layers of reality. As Justino contends with the ennui of his job and his impending separation from Vanessa, he contracts a mysterious fever; at the same time, a strange animal roams through the nearby rainforest. The film never spells out its secrets, which nonetheless invest every shot with ethereal beauty: The cranes that move giant cuboid containers at Justino’s port inscribe geometric poetry into the sky, while a rich layer of ambient sound envelops the film, adding texture even to its silences.
“The Fever” colors in the experiences of Brazil’s Indigenous community through the casual racism Justino and Vanessa face at work, including taunts about the shapes of their eyes and ignorance about the diversity of Native languages. The characters are stoic in public, but at home, Justino responds with his own judgments. “They don’t even know how to look into dreams,” he says of white doctors. “They have big eyes, but they can only see what’s in front of them.” By showing us the world through Justino’s searching gaze, Da-Rin gives us an elusive but powerful sense of the limits of our own vision.
The Fever
Not rated. In Tukano and Portuguese, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. In virtual cinemas, including Film at Lincoln Center.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
