Divino Amor

Divine Love has to be one of the most uncomfortable viewing experiences I've ever had in my life. I saw this film at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival with a large audiences and honestly felt extremely baffled with what I was watching. In 2027 Brazil, the society has seemingly grown more religious. The presence of many different cults and churches attempt to keep divine love with couples. A young married woman working at a notary's office works for her church attempting to prevent couples from getting a divorce. This concept alone is very strange however I fear that the film was overly indulgent about its topic without fully developing it. There are compelling ideas presented in Divine Love, it questions the feeling of love, religion and utopia. However these ideas felt under written and under developed, instead the film relies on erotic and pornographic scenes that last far too long which made me feel extremely uncomfortable in such a large theatre. I was attempting to explain to myself that there was a purpose to the eroticism and overly graphic sexual content however the more I think about the less I think that the film is meant to be taken seriously. Before the film even started the director admitted that he only finished work of the film on the day of showing it. I don't know how accurate his answer is but to be honest I will take his word for it. So many scenes felt incomplete and the ideas and commentary felt unfinished. There are some nice special effects (for a lower budget film) that show of this futuristic world. To be honest I was more interested in how this world functioned than on the main character's struggles, which is a sign of rather poor writing. Divine Love is also a decently shot film with great production design, the sets have such an interesting futuristic look with an small hint at retro. But if you were to take away the flash, the only thing that's left is a well produced and semi well acted porno. I wish I could say more but unfortunately this did not the hit the mark for me. The ideas were underdeveloped and the film was badly written with a poor script. Some good performances, good cinematography, excellent production design can not save a badly written film that even has needlessly cringe and excessive content in it.

What if the official registrar, who has to arrange your divorce, suddenly begs you to give your marriage another chance?

Welcome in the Brazil of 2027, where bikinis are forbidden and detection gates reveal your pregnancy. Where you can go to confession in a drive-through church. Divino Amor is an unhurried, alienating and well-acted film, with subtle humor, strange sets, disco music and a few very explicit scenes. For fans of movies like Drive, Her, Under The Skin and The Lobster.

I'm not sure how I feel about this movie. Some scenes are very uncomfortable to watch and the beginning of the movie made me very interested to explore this religious dystopia yet the way the story was developed felt kinda lackluster to me. I think I was just expecting another plot. Still, it brings some nice questions into light, it is well acted (especially the main character, lived by Dira Paes) and well-shot (loved the neon photography).

If you like Black Mirror, you should give a shot to this film. Just don't watch it with your parents in the room.

Not properly bad but a little frustrating. I expected a much deeper and encompassing distopy but I saw some nice ideas loosely connected without a clear understanding of what the movie is about. Acting is good (Dira Paes is always awesome), the film is visually nice too, the fururistic Brazil seems credible (with the advance of Neo-Pentecostal fundamentalism over national institutions) but lacks desirable information for espectators, and there is much more explicit (and convincing) sex in the film than I could imagine.

I don't want to write a spoiler review because this film is just too good to give away the essence in a review. It is VERY rare for me to give a film a ten. In the case of Divine Amor I would give a twelve out of ten if I could. It is a truly extraordinary film. Julio Machado and particularly Dira Paes give magnificent performances. The film is a brilliant fusion of science fiction and religion. You don't have to be religious to appreciate it, but if you are religious, and I am, have plenty of tissues ready. The mechanism of the child narrator is a stroke of genius that doesn't become clear until the end. Yes, there is some nudity and sex, but it is necessary to tell the story and you shouldn't shy away from this film because of that. All I can say is, trust me, watch it, this film is a unique experience.