Sydney Film Festival 2025 - Film Review - The Blue Trail

The Blue Trail - Rodrigo Santoro and Denise Weinberg

 

Screenwriter and Director, Gabriel Mascaro has provided a dystopian alternate fate for older citizens in this Amazon River 'road' movie set only a few years into the future. In this world, older citizens are relocated to a housing colony by the Government upon reaching old age (around 75). Failure to comply with the edict leads to be rounded up by civil authorities and detained before being given care backpacks and loaded onto buses. Wearing of adult diapers is mandatory before departing on the buses. 

Against this reality,  77 year old Tereza (Denise Weinberg) decides she will not be left to this fate and does a runner. She cannot buy any transport tickets for air or boat without the approval of an authorised family member who is designated her guardian (in this case her daughter) so she resorts to finding her own transport. She begins her journey through the Amazon's rivers and tributaries meeting a colourful cast of characters from a skipper (Rodrigo Santoro) of an Amazon smuggling boat (who introduces her to a psychedelic blue liguid from a snail and shows her how to run the boat) to a digital bible-selling woman running her own floating pulpit along the river.   

Mascaro's story is innovative with the stunning imagery of the Amazon as the backdrop. The anti-authoritarion theme is balanced with various playful surprises as Tereza makes good her escape.

Evaluation:

Production values: 10/10

Narrative and direction: 7/10

Cast: 8/10