WATCH: A striking look at the first year of the AIDS epidemic in Brazil
The AIDS epidemic was a global health crisis, and a number of recent projects have turned back the clock to put the focus on the lives lost to the disease from around the world.One such feature is the the film Os Primeiros Soldados (“The First Fallen”) from director Rodrigo de Oliveira, a stirring Brazilian period piece that follows the rapid spread of the epidemic in the coastal city of Vitoría through the intersecting lives of some of the first infected.It’s 1983, and biology student Suzano (Johnny Massaro) has returned home, sensing a gradual decline in his physical health.
He is Vitoría’s first known victim of AIDS, and, due to the lack of information and resources, he feels he has nowhere to turn, choosing to protect his sister Maura and nephew Muriel (Alex Bonin) from the truth.Related: And the films played on: 17 essential movies about HIV/AIDSThankfully, he finds a sense of community in trans performer Rose (Renata Carvalho) and film student Humberto (Victor Camilo), who are also both living with the disease.
Over the course of the year, all three cope in different ways, but provide one another with support and hope in the face of grief.Filmmaker de Oliveira did extensive research on reports on the epidemic from that era, and used them to inform his story of resilience, one he sees as a celebration of the people “who insisted on dreaming, on loving, on seeking a way out, however precarious it might be.”With a diverse cast of LGBTQ characters, the featureis also an ode to Brazilian’s vibrant queer community, one that takes stock of a tumultuous past to provide hope for the future.After making the rounds at international film festivals, Os Primeiros Soldados opens in Brazilian theaters this week.
