O Banquete

This is a film which intends to follow the steps of Polanski's Carnage or Dogme 95's The celebration, and many other tense films with that kind of story development. However, despite some nice events and dialogs, it cannot reach the same level and strenght. Besides that, what the hell president Collor the Mello and an unconvincing risk of arrest have to do with all those personal sorrows and latent desires? The film has qualities but it is not fitting so well.

Inspired by real events, such as the open letter published by journalist Otavio Frias Filho in the 1990s to President Fernando Collor de Mello, the idea is grand, but the dialogues are somewhat bland, filming in a single location, one-hour sequence shots without pauses or corrections, focusing on the actors' expressions and not their lines, a film that is above all visual, with great actors, excellent performances, little suspense, weak in its plot, and could have been heavier, more offensive/aggressive.

In the 1990s, despite having returned to democracy, Brazil is still experiencing a time of political instability. Amidst this climate of distrust, a journalist discovers secrets about the country's president.