WATCH: A searing queer romance goes to unexpected places in this Brazilian festival favorite
Private Desert, the queer romantic drama from filmmaker Aly Muritiba that was Brazil’s official Academy Awards submission for Best International Feature Film last year.The story opens on Daniel (Bacurau‘s Antonio Saboia), a man at the end of his rope who is caring for his elderly father while the future of his job at the police academy hangs in the balance.
The one thing keeping him going is his long-distance relationship with Sara, a woman he’s never met but has engaged in a healthy—and intimate—conversation with over text for some time now.Then one day, Sara ghosts him.
Distraught and with nothing left to lose, Daniel makes the decision to drive hundreds of miles across Brazil to find her.It’s at this point that Private Desert shifts perspectives to Sara (Pedro Fasanaro) who—if you watch the trailer, we’re not spoiling anything here—is a nonbinary person, presenting as their male identity, Robson, by day.
Though the film resists labels, we learn that Sara is a facet of Robson’s gender experimentation, and Daniel’s arrival threatens to upset the delicate balance of her life.Related: Brazilian actor comes out at his film’s premiere, reveals he’s dating his childhood BFFA moving and romantic meditation on masculinity, Private Desert is yet another boldly thought-provoking queer film to come out of Brazil, where a vibrant LGBTQ community lives under an increased threat of danger.
