“The barbarism of doing nothing”
Portuguese helmer Pedro Pinho’s packs a heap of themes into his 3 hour 36 minute epic, I Only Rest in the Storm, an overlong, strangely sensual, enigmatic, super-queer new work.
Smartly, he cast the captivating and sexy Sérgio Coragem as his environmental engineer lead, also named, Sergio. Said protagonist has traveled from Lisbon to Guinea-Bissau, replacing another engineer who has mysteriously vanished. Sergio’s task is to meet with locals to research whether the construction of a new road by a wealthy European company is environmentally sound and to see if the community feels it’s a good idea.
During his down time (which he seems to have a lot of) he romances the enigmatic Diára (Cleo Diára, who won Best Actress in the Un Certain Regard section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival) and has some steamy sex with a few men—one via a hot threesome with Diára.
Sergio is an idealist and the more he learns about the company he works for as well as the poverty-stricken community, the more frustrated he gets. And the more determined he is to do the right thing.
The film tackles class, racism, colonialism and just how the elites run the world. It’s also a sucker punch to bleeding heart liberals out there who love to “feel good about (themselves) because (they) think (they’re) helping humanity.”
There are at least two films here and, even at the really long running time, with many erotically charged moments, scenes of great conflict and numerous ideas being discussed by the characters, Pinho leaves us with an ending that is irksomely ambiguous and unsatisfying. And many of the lengthy, atmospheric sequences could have used some scissors.
Still, it’s a work that is often quite mesmerizing and Coragem’s incredible work, makes it worthwhile.
I Only Rest in the Storm is part of the Main Slate at the 63rd New York Film Festival.
For tickets and/or more info visit HERE.
