Diamantino

Very weird but also smart dark humour Portuguese movie. They had the strange idea of mocking in a spoof of football player Cristiano Ronaldo while also producing a distopy on a Portugal governed by far right who uses propaganda and genetic engineering to split from European Union and repell foreign non-white immigrants. Strongelly, it worked, although leading role character's dumbness does not convince very much. It is a poltical comedy (more than a sport one) with some surrealist touches (which are in the rich good-hearted stupid football player Diamanino's mind). It does what it is possible to annoy far right.

The premise is straight out of a cheesy lifetime movie: a retired soccer player adopts a refugee and grows up, but it's so much weirder and queerer than that at every turn. Visually sumptuous, shot on film gives it a glow and helps make the iffy CG look like a deliberate choice. Diamantino is an achingly sweet and earnest character so he's easy to love, lost amongst the scheming political evils of our day.

There are elements that showed promise: football and celebrity cult manipulation most of all (using a Cristiano Ronaldo-like clone; bad accent and family issues included). Especially if you happen to be Portuguese, but, of course, most viewers won't be. The production values are above average for what you'd expect, however the plot wanders, "serious" issues get lost, some of the acting is quite bad (a good turn from the protagonist and his evil twin sisters, though), and it is never as funny as it seems to think it is. In short: it's not great as a farce, and its not resolutely and wholeheartedly bad enough to be camp.

Diamantino (given Portuguese name) is the best film I watched at EUFF 2019, a story that is relevant and funny it took me by surprise and made me regret I skipped it in 2018 at the MAMI MFF.

Narrating the story of a footballer who fell from glory to disgrace because of one missed goal, Diamantino takes you through government propaganda, fascism, illegal scientific studies, and a sweet little relationship between the eponymous character (the brilliant and talented Carloto Cotta whose face itself is so perfect for the role he plays) and a boy that he adopts when he learns about the refugee crisis. The humor is laugh-out-loud here, both through the dialogues and the visuals that is just magically delivered in a snappy screenplay of 90 minutes. The performances are the next highlight of the film, especially the sisters who played Diamantino's sisters on screen. Such beauty and sinister-ship they carry, you cannot take eyes off them when they are on the screen. But come to think of it, this is a film where you can't do it anyway because it's fun... absurdist, but just pure fun. The wit and wordplay is also very strong here. It will most importantly remind you of a real-life footballer who hails from the same country this film is set in... TN.

(Watched and reviewed at the 24th European Union Film Festival (EUFF India) in Mumbai.)

Im sitting in my couch this very moment wondering what i just watched. The politics of this movie are... wierd. Ig to have a lesbian couple break up just so diamontino (a man) can have a romantic relationship with what in his head is a child boy who he rescues from poverty is an odd (to put it lightly) decision from the directors. The movie would work perfectly without the lesbian (Aisha) turning straight due to dimantinos massive honkers. The exact same stuff could have happened without the need of converting a lesbian, Aisha could've pretended to be a boy indefinitely, she could've said that she was a secret agent saving him or some bullcrap. Another example is the ideas surrounding EU and immigration, i think the movies message is EU good, Nationalist bad? And that immigrants shouldn't die crossing the ocean?

What does this movie want to tell me? So the message of this movie is totally lost on me.