Variety Critics' Choice 2016 / Boi Neon / Brazil, Uruguay, Netherlands 2015
Cowpokes, rodeos, transporting bulls from place to place, breeding prize horses – these are the activities that engage the movie’s protagonists as their stories intertwine in complex fashion. It’s not always just about tough guys; cowboy Iremar dreams of becoming a tailor and sewing fashionable clothes for women… This colorful film full of dash and erotic verve picked up prizes at the festivals in Venice, Toronto, and Warsaw.
Sometimes you have to take the bull by the tail – as experienced riders do in the rodeo world the film depicts, flanking cattle from both sides and tugging them to the ground from behind. A time-honored tradition in the Brazilian northeast, “vaquejada” is arguably the region’s most macho sport (women aren’t allowed to participate), which makes director Gabriel Mascaro’s strategy of slyly challenging gender roles within this realm all the more intriguing. Here, a red-lit exotic dancer takes the stage wearing horse-hoof boots and a full equine mask, two low-bred vaqueiros sneak into a livestock auction to steal stallion semen, and a fashion-obsessed cowhand seduces a pregnant security guard on the cutting table of a local clothing factory. Such vivid scenes, and dozens more like them, compose a film that exudes hormones from every pore, eschewing conventional storytelling for a hypnotic mix of superficial visuals and deep political subtext.
Peter Debruge
101 min / Color, DCP
Director Gabriel Mascaro
/ Screenplay Gabriel Mascaro
/ Dir. of Photography Diego Garcia
/ Music Carlos Montenegro, Otavio Santos
/ Editor Fernando Epstein, Eduardo Serrano
/ Art Director Maira Mesquita
/ Producer Rachel Ellis, Sandino Saravia Vinay, Marleen Slot
/ Production Desvia Filmes
/ Coproduction Malbicho Cine, Viking Film, Canal Brasil
/ Cast Juliano Cazarré, Maeve Jinkings, Vinícius de Oliveira
/ Sales Memento International
/ Distributor Aerofilms
Gabriel Mascaro (b. 1983, Recife, Brazil) graduated from the Federal University of Pernambuco. As a director he likes to work in his hometown, where he is also engaged in creating various forms of visual art. In addition to a number of video installations, he made six documentaries, including the experimental The Adventures of Paulo Bruscky (2010), about the Brazilian conceptual art pioneer, and the feature doc Housemaids (2012), on the phenomenon of domestic help in Brazilian households. His documentaries have been presented at festivals in Rotterdam, Oberhausen, and were also shown at the Guggenheim Museum in Barcelona, New York’s MoMA gallery, the British Film Institute in London, and the São Paulo Art Biennial. Mascaro’s feature debut August Winds (2014) competed at Locarno, winning a Special Jury Mention. Neon Bull screened at Toronto and Venice.
Memento International
50 rue de Chabrol, 750 10, Paris
France
Phone: +33 153 349 020
E-mail: sales@memento-films.com
Aerofilms
Milady Horákové 383/79, 170 00, Praha 7
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 224 947 566
E-mail: info@aerofilms.cz
Ivo Andrle
Distributor
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