"Noites Paraguayas" makes a curious and surprising view on the theme of immigration and a foreigner perspective while living in Brazil. It doesn't follow
the usual cliches of someone finding a highly special place to live with countless enchantments and beauties, but mostly it deals with the cultural aspects, the
differences and similarities, positive or negative, without the excesses of cultural clashes and distancing.
In his only feature film as director, cinematographer Aloysio Raulino tells the story of Rosendo, a disenchanted native/rural Paraguyan peasant who after his father's death
decides to leave his girlfriend and friends behind to find some new life perspectives and decides to see what goes on the next door neighbor country, Brazil. His initial
visit comes to a small town where many Paraguayans like him can be found, and thanks to a friend who presents him to a comrade who already lives in Brazil and knows
everything, he decides to go to São Paulo where he finds a wider and giant reality of a fascinating big city.
Rosendo finds work along with members of his community, selling fabric in many commercial centers, along with his friendly boss (Sérgio Mamberti), also a
countryman but one who knows how to make contacts with the Brazilian. But Rosendo is mostly limited to his Paraguayan mates since he doesn't speak Portuguese and he isn't
much confident in establishing new contacts. The group's enjoyment comes to enjoying the Paraguayan Nights of the title, on a bar where they hear songs from their nation
to share nostalgic memories of it.
With a documentary style that mixes fiction and reality, Raulino doesn't offer the sense of selling an ideal of place where all dreams come true to foreigners
like Rosendo, and the man himself feels that. As he said to his girlfriend, he was intended to come back. And it's not a sense that he found progress or much excitment
to the point where he cannot back to the countryside of his homeland; no, he's very homesick and at any given day he'll just turn back. And it's not even a sense of
him escaping misery or poverty, since he has lands back home and even when he moves to São Paulo he isn't trying to save money or find an ideal job that pays. Unlike his
dreamy mates who plan many working schemes he's just there for the ride.
The narrative doesn't follow a particularly coherent line, it jumps to some random and unusual moments revolving little Brazilian characters, such as the clumsy
waiter (José Dumont) who has visions of a devil whenever he's about to serve costumers during the Paraguayan nights, just upsetting his boss. That character never has
interactions with our hero, it's just a weird comic relief. No high purpose to those moments, and there are a couple of them which makes the experience a little
distracting when the alternative could be showing more of Rosendo observing the city, connecting with people or having some inner moments with himself.
Yet there's a whole magic and beauty to the whole experience, greatly photographed by the director while showing the city, filming downtown in a great aerial
manner in one long sequence; or when the duo seems to be welcomed by the crowd; and Rosendo's lone moments after getting a construction job. As someone who knows those
places it was fascinating to see it with a different perspective along with the man, as if I never been there before and I get to become overwhelmed with everything I see.
It's a very special film, no doubt about it, though there was a big part of me wanting to see an ever closer look than what I've got, some critical view or at
least to make the lead character someone more active - and that's where lies the mystery of the film since none of the major players are credited (the names are there
but you can't find the actual actors or the ones who played themselves. I could only distinguish the familiar faces from Brazil). But since it offered me a new view
of how foreigners have of the country, without prejudices or stereotypes as most similar themed films make, I can consider "Noites Paraguayas" a superb achievement. 8/10.
