“Irene is raising four rambunctious sons in a home that is physically crumbling but warm and happy. As Irene simultaneously shelters her sister Sonia (who just left a volatile marriage), supports her own husband through a financial crisis, and plans her own long-awaited high school graduation, Irene’s eldest son, Fernando, suddenly announces he has been recruited by a professional handball team in Germany and will be leaving in just three weeks. Consummate caretaker Irene prickles at the idea of emancipating the 16-year-old so he can travel and live alone, and she becomes increasingly anxious about what her future holds.
Writer/director Gustavo Pizzi exquisitely captures a family’s home and life in intimate, crisp, fully realized detail, while co-writer/actress Karine Teles embodies Irene with delicacy and passion, articulating in equal measure her fierce familial devotion, seemingly endless reserve of warmth and patience, and growing existential doubt. Loveling thoughtfully contemplates the complicated balance between the destructive and restorative elements of our bonds to the people we love and cherish most.” —Sundance Film Festival
LOVELING / BENZINHO
A film by Gustavo Pizzi, 2017, Brazil/Uruguay, 95 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Now streaming on Amazon Prime
Watch the trailer:
