Socrates

Wow....compelling movie to watch, but for all the wrong reasons. It gives a glimpse of dire poverty that exists in Brazil, where even the tropical weather and palms aren't enough to offset the ugliness of it all. The primary lead, Socrates, is a 15 year old kid who suddenly and unexpectedly loses his mother, his only guardian. The movie follows his desperate search for a job in order to keep his apartment and buy food. Who is this actor playing this kid? Every scene looked real, tragic, pathetic, depressing and it left me feeling grateful for all I have, right here in wintry Ohio.

Socrates, a good-hearted boy being pushed into manhood the hard way, lurches from crisis to crisis. Then this fairly short film ends.

There was room to tell us more, even while we can probably guess the back-story involving his father. The cinematography is brilliant, and the English sub-titles were precise and colloquial, so that was a big help. Not too unusually for Brazilian films, "Socrates" gives us the feeling of being right there, almost as if it were a documentary. I understand this was a project involving young filmmakers and they should be commended -- it's strong, and would only have been made stronger by filling in bits and pieces of the story.

Apologies for the tawdry headline but I was just now a bit blown away by this flick. I had recently seen director Alexandre Moratto's "7 Prisoners" (also excellent) so dug back into time (via IMDB LoL) to check out his earlier work.

WOW there was so much unexpected raw honesty and imagery and emotion in this movie I was flabbergasted. And it was produced by young students!!

Exceptional.

Deeply moving and totally convincing film. We follow the protagonist from very close which makes us viewers pulled into the story. Impressive acting by the young Christian Malheiros (debut)! Teen Socrates has to make a life on his own, when suddenly his mother dies. No-one wants to help him with a safe place to stay and sleep, unless he pays, but he really can't find much work as a minor. And in an environment where identity is taboo, things are even tougher. Between despair and youthful energy, he tries his best. While being faced with bureaucracy and other people's cowardice, and fighting for survival and freedom (and love), he still needs to find a way to cope with his mourning. All this makes him grow up very quickly, and even though still being just a teenager and having weak moments, he seems sometimes more mature than many adults he meets. Intense and deeply human picture. Also remarkable about this very well made low budget film project : made together with street youth from the favelas.

I am tempted to not overuse the word masterpiece, but misused though it is I consider this film to live up to the word. For those who can please see this film, and then again I wonder if it had been a heterosexual youth at the centre of the film it would have had wider acclaim here. The trajectory of the fifteen year old is almost as terrible as the young man in ' Sauvage ' except that the sexual scenes are not made explicit. France is not Brazil, and from what I see here of the homophobia, the betrayals and the abuse of one so young it makes me wonder how anybody at the bottom of the pecking order can survive there. I will not give spoilers, except to say with the sudden death of his mother this youth ( innocent and yet forward when he feels love for another youth ) falls into the many traps that a ruthless society inflicts on him. And there is a love story here, and hope could have been there except for the homophobia which seems intrinsically endemic even in large cities. As for the film itself it is in my opinion flawless, and so is the performance from the youth who has been named Socrates. Wisdom indeed and an inner knowledge way beyond his years. Seeing it in the terrible times we are living through I thought of Brazil now and what is happening there now. Any viewing of the film cannot avoid the political background. It goes way beyond in depth many other LGBT films. Why ? To sum up there is so much else in the scenario beyond homosexuality. Along with my familiar favourites of ' Sauvage ' and ' Theo and Hugo ' it is a rare film of extraordinary beauty. If there was a 10+ it would fall into that category.