Brazilian filmmakers Victor Di Marco & Márcio Picoli’s alluring debut feature, London, showcases Di Marco’s remarkable talents as actor, co-director and co-writer. And Picoli’s as co-writer, co-director. Both artists are also producers on the film.
I had no idea that the lead also wore two other key hats, and I’m glad I didn’t.
The titular character, embodied by Di Marco, is a fiercely independent, disabled, young queer adult who works at a fetish house, often wrapping men in cellophane.
His disabled besties (Jéssica Teixeira, Pedro Bertoldi) also work with him.
After a medical exam, London is told another test is necessary so he can understand his body and his disability, which affects his motion, but he is fearful that a diagnosis could change the way he lives and might begin to define him.
He has a loving but frustrated mother and a disabled sister who could benefit from her brother’s diagnosis, so he has to decide what to do.
This impressive film is both an intense character study and an internal queer thriller as shots of staring and glaring children pepper the film—possibly representing bullies from his past. The young man lives with many demons including the fear that his body will continue to betray him.
London is defiantly sexual, whether he’s hooking up with random guys or being intimate with an older woman he meets and befriends. His carnal pleasures fill a void for him and is presented in a refreshingly unapologetic manner.
Tech credits enhance this highly stylized indie from Bruno Polidoro’s dazzling cinematography to Will Domingos’ arresting editing to Vito O. Azevedo drum-pounding score to the terrific sound design by Cleverton Borges.
But it’s Di Marco’s fearless and heartbreaking performance that catapults the film and allows the audience to empathize with this tortured young man.
It also helps that the ending is absolutely sublime.
London is In Competition and part of the International Critic’s Week (Settimana internazionale della critica)
In Portuguese, with English subtitles.
