"Vazio" ("Empty") had a strange proposition as images were unfolding that for a great moment I thought this movie didn't have anything to say. However,
I was proven wrong and the movie succeed it in being a nice picture that even though made years prior to the pandemic it actually showed something quite
relevant for our current period.
In it, a young tourist (Alexis Luna Gutty) goes to Recife to spend the holidays and enjoy the culture, the rhthym and the dances of place. But when he
gets there, where's everybody? Not a single soul on the streets, no traffic, no movement, nothing. Except for the presence of a trumpet player (Luiz Camilo)
who plays a lonely tune. They exchange a few words and then...I guess you get an idea from here.
The movie presents the abnomarlity of crowded places and how people desperatly try to find and form connections because that's what we humans are, we
need the company of each other and we feel less lonely with another person. The film doesn't give us any explanation as to what happened to everbody - maybe
there's a hint at the beginning when the black screen only presents TV audios but we can't quite figure out what's going on. Considering now, we can assume
it's a lockdown of sorts that prevented people from going to the streets and conduct their business. This is the new normal, it's hard to get used to.
But the final images makes a poignant case about how we felt when things started to go back on track. It was less lonelier, less crowded for sad obvious
reasons but at least we've got back.
Linda Nogueira has plenty of things to present in her brief presentation, specially with some images from Recife and its places, all of which I think
should be presented a little more. She should have show all the historical places, the places with the most movement and all, so we can have a sense of how
the location actually is. But it's a quite intriguing and well-made film. 8/10.