Brazilian filmmaker Gabriel Mascaro’s latest sci-fi fantasy and Berlin’s Silver Bear winner The Blue Trail is both a life-affirming, coming-of-old-age tale and an unsettling dystopian commentary on ageism, as it follows the adventures of stoic but defiant 77 year-old Tereza, played by seasoned Brazilian actor Denise Weinberg.
To protect the economy from the threat of future pandemics in a near-future Brazil, its authoritarian government sends anyone over the age 80 to purpose-built colonies for their “well being”. Following an incident at work, Tereza returns to her modest home in an industrialized town in the Amazon where she lives alone, to contemplate what life has in store for her next. However, when the age threshold is subsequently lowered to 75, both her employer and her family deem life for her to be better suited at the colonies – plus her age now makes it impossible for her to live independently when she needs ID to survive.
However, Tereza is still full of hopes and dreams that she is not willing to give up, and after escaping then being rounded up to be transferred to her final destination, she escapes again and embarks on a soul-enriching, clandestine journey down the rivers and tributaries of the Amazon to fufil a dream of flying, while discovering many other hidden ambitions and new people living outside of ‘the system’ along the way.
In moments of both calming contemplation and reflection and great vulnerability and imminent danger, Mascaro’s film delivers pleasurable ripples of the absurd that provide an intriguing but disquieting social commentary on how far society has come. As Tereza flees the state’s grip to retain her freedom and reach her end goal, we also witness wagons with caged elderly people being carted off to the colonies like stray animals, or restrictions on the elderly’s freedom of movement after Tereza produces her ID, only for her daughter and state-appointed guardian Joana (Clarissa Pinheiro) to be contacted to authorise payment for a passenger flight, blowing Tereza’s cover. This also throws sobering light on the debate about intended mandatory digital ID and its effects on living standards.
Tereza’s self-worth and years of wisdom are reaffirmed after she meets riverboat captain Cadu (Rodrigo Santoro) who agrees to take her to the port of Itacoatiara. Along the way she first encounters the clairvoyant power of the rare Blue snail’s luminous mucus that Cadu drops into his eyes in a dreamlike scene, while questioning what she is witnessing in her usual pragmatic fashion, the consequences of which help her develop another new life skill.
Tereza moves on and meets Roberta, aka ‘The Nun’ (Miriam Socarrás), another woman of similar age who has bought her freedom to sell digital Bibles from her houseboat and has found a way to co-exist with the authoritarian rule and societal age limitations. Buoyed by this, Tereza and Roberta form a mutual and business partnership after trying the Blue snail slime, in a scene of carefree ecstasy and reawakening of desire. These moments of connection show the resilience of human nature and are inspirational. Both Weinberg and Socarrás are a tonic to behold here – Weinberg masterfully leading the plot as our guide and solution to the ageist futuristic dilemma.
The Blue Trail, complete with its Werner Herzog Fitzcarraldo nods that realise the individual’s dream of control over their own destination, lingers on with Tereza at the helm in the end, allowing the viewer to decide her fate through witnessing key moments of her survival and acumen throughout. It neither judges or suggests the best possible outcome for her – and the snail’s prediction is also satisfactorily left unknown.
