Shine Your Eyes

Brazilian Director Matias Mariani returns with this gorgeously shot, atmospheric and abstract look at brotherhood, melancholy and family values. Arriving in Sao Paulo from Nigeria, in search of his older brother, Amadi mingles in the African immigrants community discovering aspects of compassion, struggle, comradeship and solitude among them. As he puts up the pieces of an enigmatic puzzle, with the help of sophisticated technology skills, he unveils the mysteries of a frenetic, over-populated but lonesome metropolis, while looking for reasons for the disappearance. The cinematography brilliantly captures the sense of abandon and loss throughout the speedy city, reflecting our tumultuous modern era, and the cultural and language barriers experienced by Amadi. An acclaimed selection at this year's Berlin, Mariani conceived an exuberant, vibrant, poetic, and inventive "one man's journey" drama.

An African / Brazilian drama. It's about a boy who travels from Africa to Brazil in search of his older brother because they don't know anything about him, so that he returns home to be the leader of the family, but it turns out that nothing the brother said was entirely true . A film from the Berlin festival selection. Parsimonious. Quality. At times infuriating for not knowing where the brother is. An interesting metaphor about freedom. How much of what others tell us they are really true? This movie magnificently explores that. This movie is not for everyone, you have to like festival movies. It shows broad features of African culture and how it collides with a new continent.

Cinematography was fascinating and unique, (Leo Bittencourt) used the 4:3 aspect ratio and it looked attractive, you can pause at anytime and you'll see a beautiful portrait. But does cinematography only makes a good movie?

The movie was too slow paced, it was really boring, (Matias Mariani) added a lot of poetic scenes that doesn't mean anything, also the dialogue was poetic.

O.C. Ukeje and Indira Nascimento performance was good but there was nothing exceptional.

The story was ridiculous and bizarre, does anyone care about what did the movie try to say? I think the movie was too personal and it wasn't for me.

A beautiful Franco-Brazilian production, a thriller that goes to the heart of the prejudice and difficulties of immigrants in big cities, in a somewhat different plot, but super pleasant to follow... dimples, when he doesn't like it he puts his hand on the cheese and says - go away." God, what a sad legend for my dimple in my chin...

An intriguing multilingual journey into the world of family expectations driving people to question existence. As a polyglot, I enjoyed the vivid usage of Igbo, Portuguese, Hungarian, Chinese and Arabic in this film.