NEON BULL

Iremar (Juliano Cazarré) travels with a crew of cattle hands through north-eastern Brazil. They supply the bulls for the vaquejada, a rodeo in which riders wrestle the animals to the ground by the tail. But Iremar dreams of tailoring: after work he designs horse masks and revealing costumes for Galega (Maeve Jinkings), who drives the truck and dances in the evenings. With her daughter Cacá and the cattle hand Zé, they form a family on wheels – until a newcomer joins the crew and Iremar meets a pregnant worker from the perfume factory. “Neon Bull” (“Boi Neon”, 2015) by Gabriel Mascaro of Brazil is about people who, amid livestock, sweat and longing, pursue designs of their own.

Gabriel Mascaro tells this elliptically, with earthy humour and a sensual camera that takes the bodies of people and animals equally seriously – a study of masculinity that does not put its characters on display but celebrates them. In Venice the film won the Special Jury Prize of the Orizzonti section in 2015, in Toronto a special mention in the Platform section, four awards in Rio and the main prize in Warsaw. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2016.

Shown at the 2016 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2016 · Film Archive