Marcelo Santiago's "Sonhos e Desejos" (bizarrely titled in English as "Carnal Utopia" when it should've been "Dreams and Desires") is a nice and involving
story that takes place during the early days of the military regime in Brazil. Here, a small group of misfits trapped in a small apartment while fighting for
left cause spend their days dreaming of a possible future of freedom and dignity in the nation.
The student Cristiana (Mel Lisboa) and her parter, teacher Saulo (Felipe Camargo) are members of a political group who commits robberies as part of their
revolutional and political projects against the military forces. When they move to an apartment the man tells the girl to not leave the premises unless
necessary, but when a mysterious injured group member comes to join the girl is told to take care of the man, assist him with his injuries. The strange man
is called Nijinsky (Sergio Marone), and he's under a mask of which he cannot remove thanks to superior orders from the group since he's a valuable member.
That fact intrigues Cristiana who spends her days with him in long conversations while her partner is out trying to help the foreign member Roco (Ricardo Pereira), a paranoid man who
suspects he's being hunted by everyone. During the many conversations and attempts to see Nijinsky's face, a feeling of love and closeness bring them together but they all
know the man will have to leave when his injury heals, and he'll have to go to the southside where an important mission awaits him.
The criticism: a noted filmmaker once said that the best way to criticize a movie is to make another movie. In this case, to write about another movie
and see how similar aspects differ and become (or not) better movies. It's enormous similarity with Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" is a constant thing with me.
Both films deal with a trio of characters trapped in the same environment and they all live the free spiritism of the late 1960's/early 1970's - they had
the May 68 events, here it's the early 70's that are depicted. And in between wild and fantastic dreams of liberty and free love, there's the junction of
characters (brother, sister and one foreign in that movie; a couple and the mystery lover).
And obiovusly lots of moments of eroticism between the
characters permeates the story in beautiful and well shot sequences. Too bad that "The Dreamers" quality isn't brought up in here. Maybe because while those
charcters dreams are more innocent, less revolutionary (at least until the ending) and more the cinema love that united them, while in this picture the
dreams and desires are more for a closeness for each other than a bigger social cause as they claim to fight on the outside.
Their dreams aren't for a social revolution, it's more of a personal and significant change within themselves, wishes for simpler times where they can leave
the room and enjoy love and freedom without having to hide themselves from the world. But I can agree that both films deal with the topic of youth wanting
and demanding to be the change of culture and ideologies in their places, the generation that would shook the world and make it a better place to live. Those
are cliches of many similar themed films but it never fails to work. Here I think it was a little under used since we don't see much progress on that except
the free-spirited love that happen between the guys and the girl on bed or on the floor.
The cast is very good in their roles, even though I didn't like the jealous and irritating character played by Camargo. The movie succeed fairly whenever
he wasn't on screen and only Cristiana and Nijinsky were having their most intimate moments of closeness and affection. Pereira's minor role was a thankless
role, the more he appears the creepier and crazier he gets. He was under-developed by the writing and not because of the acting. A little glimpse of hope
this story could present but that was only destined to a handful of characters.
For enthusiasts of the period depicted here, or fans of one scenery/play-like device, this is a must-see. The soundtrack is also good, which brings back many 1970's classics and one original song
that fits the film with perfection - if I'm not wrong it's Milton Nascimento who performs it. I'd love to watch it again. 8/10.
