Locarno Film Festival 2024: Youth (Hard Times), Transamazonia, Moon | Festivals & Awards

This is admittedly a broad comparison, but if you can imagine “The Mosquito Coast” told from Reverend Spellgood’s perspective, you’d probably come somewhat close to “Transamazonia,” South African director Pia Marais’ quiet Amazon-set mood piece. Marais’ film similarly deconstructs godlike figures, questions the reality of miracles, and sees the wiser child learn that their father is all bunk. 

It begins and thrives through ambiguity. The opening shot pushes in on two upturned seats in the middle of a humid, foggy jungle. An unconscious girl, the lone survivor of a plane crash, is covered in mud and blood. She is carried to safety by an Indigenous man of the Iruaté tribe, where she is claimed by her father: Lawrence Byrne (Jeremy Xido). Flash forward nine years, and Lawrence and his daughter Rebecca (a deceptively brilliant Helena Zengel) are operating a church for the locals under the promise that Rebecca, a literal miracle child, can heal the sick, wounded, and dispirited. They’ve got a profitable gig going until sawmill owner Artur Alves (Rômulo Braga) appears begging for help for his wife, who’s been in a coma for ages. If Rebecca can awaken his wife, he promises to depart the jungle, where his company is in a violent dispute with the displaced Iruaté people. 

Lit in cool tones by D.P. Mathieu De Montgrand, this gorgeously mounted film prides itself on its sense of mystery: We never learn how Rebecca survived that plane crash or whether she performs miracles or is just the recipient of dumb luck. For a time, we don’t even know why Lawrence is so hellbent on pushing Rebecca to save Artur’s wife. Because of those fissures, Marais keeps one from simply labeling Rebecca a white savior. How can she fit the stereotype if we’re not actually sure she has saved anyone? When a nurse named Denise (Sabine Timoteo) arrives, the previously tranquil relationship between father and daughter is further imbalanced, causing the daughter, probably for the first time in her life, to question her faith in the godlike figure that is her father. 

These wonderful components are sometimes undone by the outside gaze on the indigenous tribe and by the unconscionable decision by the Marais and her screenwriters to tie together every loose thread in the final ten minutes in a film that works because of its open-endedness. Despite those missteps, there’s enough mystique in “Transamazonia” to make it spellbinding and haunting.   

There’s nothing worse than seeing a great film lurking underneath the tragically flawed result. Such is the case with “Moon,” the Austrian-Kurdish writer/director Kurdwin Ayub’s slow-burn Jordan-set thriller. While many films, particularly the low-budget action kind, have rendered the washed-up MMA fighter into a cliche — Ayub takes a different route. Having seemingly lost the will to fight, Sarah (Florentina Holzinger), is now training others. Most of her clients aren’t serious. They’re taking classes because MMA is trendy. The terse, monotone Sarah is also unwilling to play along. Very nearly broke, Sarah takes an odd offer: The son of a wealthy Jordanian family wants to hire Sarah to train his three younger sisters. In return, not only will she be handsomely compensated. She’ll also stay in a luxe fully paid hotel room complete with a personal driver, who will take her to the family’s far-flung compound.