Moviegoers—and one would like to think all people—know that if the government is telling us something over and over that not only is what it’s saying a lie, but that the exact opposite is probably true. So we know something isn’t right almost immediately in The Blue Trail (original: O Último Azul) directed by Gabriel Mascaro. Not right, but maybe not far off from our reality, as the first third of the movie develops and we’re in a slightly alternate timeline in Brazil, where a slightly Orwellian government proclaims, daily, with public announcements and messaging, how much it cares for old people.
Tereza (Denise Weinberg) a 77-year-old woman has a seemingly unfulfilling life working in a meat processing plant, though she’s in good health and enjoys being active. To her surprise and disappointment, a government program that mandates retirement for the elderly has suddenly changed the mandatory age, from 80 to 75, so she’s let go from her job, even though she wants to keep working. When she asks whether the decisions shouldn’t be hers, she’s given the runaround by her supervisor and the bureaucrats.
It gets most sinister when we learn that the government—shall we say—concentrates old people into camps, where they can enjoy their old age in leisure. No choice on that, and all old people lose their financial independence. Tereza’s daughter Vanessa (Isabela Catão) has to be called and consulted on any financial transactions. But Tereza, now that she’s faced with an existential emptiness in her life, latches on to the idea that she’s never flown in an airplane, and that she wants to do that before she dies. The problem with that is in this slightly Orwellian world regular old folks can’t buy tickets without their children’s permission. And Vanessa isn’t giving it. She wants her mom to go off to camp.
Fortunately for Tereza she lives along the Amazon River, where a boat culture still thrives. And cash still exists. Bribing boatmen, she sets off to find a supposed ultralight craft that still exists farther upriver. Tereza sets off on a hero’s quest, though one can’t help feeling there’s a certain Thelma & Louise undercurrent. How is this going to end?
Despite the Orwellian-ness of the plot and city life, once Tereza gets on the Amazon, we see a timeless world of people living on the edge: whereas Tereza comes from the working class, the people living on the river, while not necessarily bad people, are more from the underclass, hustling how they can, living in shacks. There are also glimpses of natives, and very rural people who come in for trading. It’s a gritty world, but fascinating and the main allure of The Blue Trail: any goal Tereza is moving towards is forgotten in the journey itself. My guess is that even city people in Brazil don’t really know much about this part of their country.
Denise Weinberg is great at showing us Tereza’s awakening out of the daily grind. Tereza’s face, her eyes even, are at first fairly empty and lifeless, shifting to confused when confronted with her new bureaucratic nightmare. But as she gets on the river, Weinberg starts to show us life—her whole body changes. Tereza isn’t feeble, but she becomes more animated as she starts to enjoy life. Director Gabriel Mascaro doesn’t prettify anything: Weinberg is no glamour queen, though she has the acting chops of anyone in Hollywood. But Mascaro lets us see the wrinkles and tussled hair, the dirty clothes, which have their own beauty.
The Blue Trail ends up being a parable, or a way to live in the growing dystopian Orwellian world: that freedom will be out along the edges of civilization. It may not be easy, and the future will remain uncertain. But there will be moments of glory.