Best Short Film
Son of Carnival
In Rio de Janeiro a director of a samba school and a german traveller live a love affair that can only survive by winning the carnival and bridging an ocean. A passion is running high in the carnival 2020, when Baco (Marcelo Brou), the director of Rio de Janeiro’s samba school Mocidade Independente de Padre Miguel, gets to know the German Mark (Ralf Itzel) in a rehearsal. Although very different one from the other, they get enchanted by their opposite worlds and decide to go for a relationship. Baco invites Mark to stay with him in his apartment and Mark extends his stay. What is supposed to go on for weeks turns into two years. Even trying hard, Mark doesn´t succeed to take his big love to Germany and, due to professional compromises, has to go back alone to his home country. That´s the start of our story, that begins from the end. The fact that they live in different countries and time zones with different habits undermines their relationship. Their love gets lost in the everyday life. Mark starts to hate the carnival, that had united them in the beginning, because he wants Baco at his side. But Baco is a son of carnival, with the life goal to win Rio´s carnival championship at any cost. Desperate, Mark returns by surprise to Brazil and has a discussion with Baco at the door of his apartment. The principal location of the story is the hall of the building where we see starts and ends, arrivals, waits and departures and also sex, love and betrayal. The story is not only about love but about where love can take us. How many mountains can it move and what can two lovers do when there is an ocean in between them? “What happens in the carnival, stays in the carnival.”
► by: Pedro Milward