Cinema”The last blue ‘look to age generously,’ comments Gabriel Mascaro

In The last bluenew feature of Gabriel Mascarofrom Ox neon(2015) and Divine Love(2019), the actress Denise Weinberg (Greenery) embodies Terezaan elderly woman who refuses to submit to impositions of a tax. For the director, his movie “Look to age generously“.

In an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone Brazildirector and actress talk about the experience of filming in the Amazon, the protagonism of local actors and the power of older, desiring and complex characters and how cinema can be a space for transformation and dignity for all ages. Check it out in full:

The Amazon as a scenario of fantasy and discovery

Native of Pernambuco, Mascaro He said that his familiarity with the Amazon came to university, when he worked with the NGO Video in the villages, forming indigenous directors: “It was a very beautiful project, from an anthropologist called Van Sankarelli. We traveled to Alto Rio Negro, and I familiar with this image of the Amazon early on my career “, revealed Mascaro.

The director explained that the film needed an environment of escape and displacement, capable of transmitting isolation and emotional intensity: “Only the river [Amazonas]with its charm, mystery and isolation, could allow such a pulsating and singular journey, where the character Tereza was confronted with a unique experience “, he said.

He also highlighted the contrast between forest density and local productivity, exemplifying with the opening of the film in a alligator factory: “Almost cold Polish, with the clothes that seem to be in Europe. We wanted a transfigured Amazon, a suspended reality.”

Beyond the physical context, Mascaro He stressed the playful tone of the work: “The movie starts with a dance. It’s almost a game, a playful movie that allows itself to get into the ‘Coming of Age’ genre, but applied to a body that is not young. It was amazing to work with Denise Weinbergbringing energy, protagonism and pride of your aging. “

A new look at older bodies in the cinema

Gabriel Mascaro He stressed the rarity of elderly protagonists who still transform and want to live intensely: “For almost ten years of writing the script, we researched references and found almost nothing. Most of the films with protagonists at this age deals with finitude or nostalgia. Almost none shows a pulsating body, desiring, in the present. Why not look at an elderly body that can still transform, just as we do with young people in the Coming of Age?”

He points out how the film rescues the complexity and desire of the elderly character, breaking with the traditional view of cinema: “The movie looks at the character, the body, to grow old, in a generous way. It shows that more than flying, there is the right to choose. Tereza receives the dignity it deserves. We wrote a movie for an elderly, complex, desiring, active body.“

The director also states that The last blue brings a new look to the elderly inside the cinema: “It is a historical reparation. Cinema neglects this look; Elderly actors and actresses are usually domesticated, placed in safe and predictable papers. Here we wanted just the opposite: throwing this body on an intense journey of transformation and freedom.”

The challenges of production

Gabriel Mascaro He detailed the challenges of filming himself in the Amazon and how production was able to turn these difficulties into creative opportunities. For him, the dynamics of the river and the aquatic logistics were the main obstacles:

“The natural challenge is the dynamics of Rio, to understand how to film the idea of ​​Boat Movie, the situation of the structure, the support boats, the aquatic logistics. It was very beautiful, because we made a very different movie from the mode of operating that is made in Brazil.”

Mascaro He stressed the importance of having a totally Amazonian team, instead of bringing professionals from other states: “We made a movie with all Amazonian production. It’s very interesting and we got a lot got rich of being able to have had this exchange with the particularities of Amazonian production, how to film in the Amazon.”

Denise reinforced the relevance of the project to reveal new talents: “All the participation that happens there are the actors of the Manaus Theater scene, which is very beautiful too, because I think it never had a movie that has been able to reveal and show so much talent.”

The symbols of the Amazon

Gabriel He explained how he sought inspiration to build the movie universe, especially the Baba Baba snail. According to him, the film reads the Amazon, incorporating magical and symbolic elements present in the forest:

We have several sacred entities there in the forest. You have the vines, which have a magical element. There are frogs, which also create hallucinations, animals and experiences that are very their own in various ethnographic cultures in the Amazon.”

In order not to appropriate sacred symbols of some cultures, the team chose to create a unique element for the movie: “What we tried to do was raise a new, unique animal, the blue drool snail, even not to use elements that are for some sacred things cultures. We preferred to be inspired by what happens in reality, but create our own element of Tereza, the film’s element in the world of the movie.”

Valorization of regional cinema

Gabriel He highlighted the meeting between the Pernambuco cinema and the local production of the Amazon as a moment of cultural and artistic exchange: “North cinema and northern theater were in need of this meeting of decentralized cinematography, bringing the experience of people like the Denise and Rodrigo Santoro. It was a very beautiful meeting. “

Denise Complements, reinforcing the impact of the project on local actors: “I think it will be a very big commotion for them, who become filming, suffered everything, but the whole experience. This will give a confirmation that it is possible. It is a hope that it is possible.” She also emphasizes the importance of leaving the Rio-Sao Paulo axis and exploiting the northern and northeast talent:

The cinema in the Northeast gives a bath in the Southeast cinema. This is very cool, this miscegenation within Brazil. There are actors there that are wonderful. This is very important to our profession, for the northern human being who wants to be an actor or actress. “

To Gabriel Mascarothis view comes from a policy of decentralization of Brazilian cinema, which began about 15 years ago: “Today we are seeing the fruit of this. The challenge is to ensure the diversity of Brazil. When we celebrate Pernambuco cinema, in fact, we celebrate diversity. It is good for Brazil to be confronted with different experiences of Brazil.”

He explains that this regional cinema is not a dispute with the Southeast, but a coexistence of cultural experiences: “Pernambuco cinema is politically a decentralized look, but it is a Brazilian film, filmed in the Amazon, with a national weight. It mixes an international team and seeks cultural exchange.”

Filming with intensity and urgency

Gabriel comments that the intensity of their productions comes from the feeling that each movie can be the last: “When I film, I filming angrily. I can’t make a mistake. Always filming like the last movie. It’s all or nothing. Filming with despair may be impregnated in our act of final bravery.”

He also highlights the importance of culture and regional reference: “In the Northeast, people who work in the cinema are extremely well informed and cultured. The references are completely different. This gives an upgrade in the movie.”

International reception and universal themes

Denise Weinberg Comments on the acceptance of the film at international festivals, such as in Berlin:
“We are surprised by acceptance. The film is very human and deals with a global theme: the elderly and how society deals with it. It plays everywhere in the world, from China to Japan.”

It emphasizes the impact of the Amazonian scenario and the inventiveness of the narrative: “Everyone is curious about the Amazon, but we present a differentiated Amazon. There is inventiveness in the creation, in the changed world, in a colony of the elderly. The film mixes dystopia with utopia, and this deeply touches the audience.”

To Denisethe film surprises in inverting expectations about aging: “People come in thinking it’s a movie about apocalypse and come in love, with a desire to live and grow old. The film believes in the drive of life, utopia, even though it is dystopian.”

“A breath of resistance“

“A breath of resistance“

With the film’s premiere in theaters from this Thursday, August 28, Denise explains what you expect the public to feel when following Tereza:

I hope the old men get up (laughs). But this indignation of Tereza It is not just for the elders; Fits any age. It does not accept the passive obedience that marks us so much. In Brazil, we often go on ‘okay, that’s the way it is. This brought us here, but it is not healthy. Tereza emerges as a breath of resistance, saying, ‘I won’t, I don’t want to go.’ She gets up, challenges, questions, and inspires others to do the same. ”

The actress also connects the trajectory of Tereza with historical and cultural issues: “The obedience we often carry, inherited from a colonized story, prevents us from exercising our own identity. And then the story of Tereza Gain political dimension: they put the elderly in a colony, take their freedom, and never return them. It is a warning about what society does to who should be respected and heard. Brazil gets used to obeying too much, accepting external impositions, and this crosses generations.”

Also read:Meet the 16 Brazilian films qualified to run for a place at Oscar 2026

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