O Lobo atrás da porta, (A wolf at the door)
Israel Luis Arreola from Guadalajara Talents Press 2014 review Fernando Coimbra's O LOBO ATRÁS DA PORTA
Fernando Coimbra´s O Lobo atrás da Porta
Fernando Coinbra´s first feature film O LOBO ATRÁS DA PORTA 2014 (A wolf at the door)) a part of the reconstruction of two testimonial paths on the lines of a love triangle. A police preamble connects the three points of intersection after a crime in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is committed. The daughter of Sylvia (Fabiula Nascimento) and Bernardo (Milhem Cortaz) was kidnapped and the prime suspect is Rosa (Leandra Leal), Bernardo’s lover.
From the police questioning the film will unveil versions of the ones involved. The one Bernardo gives is the shortest and more direct which in a straight line transited motivated by the heat of passion and that passion in his marriage was fading out. And Rosa´s who followed a more complex way, as in her confused wanderings eventually unite the two remaining points. From the visual representation of this idyllic tangle, Fernando Coimbra the director, places the characters in scenes that emphasize closeness and remoteness games that suppose infidelity: a static and close to their faces shoot during sex; a look that pursues actions from both of them when she calls him on the phone repeatedly while he (Bernardo) watches from the darkness without her noticing or the choice to privilege the position of each before the camera, in the evolving story of their relationship. Rosa is a woman seduced by a burning statement that will end in the consummation of her impulses, because since the moment she asked Bernardo if his car smells like gas, we get a glimpse that she is attracted to fatality without her even knowing it at that moment. She is guided by a false promise of love that, little by little, she was fuelling inside her, even if and in the opposite way of her desires her appearance finally revive the dead fire of a marriage. Rosa entered two doors: in one side, Bernardo´s carnal satisfaction that started with their meeting at the train station, and in the other, the friendly intrusion at Sylvia´s home with the hidden intention of replacing her.
A wink of what represents Rosa´s character can be found in the heart-shaped necklace that she carried throughout the film; a sign that may seem a bit tired or over seen but placed in the story in a very subtle way. Rosa is a woman in love, but her emotions are cornered by her status of the other one, the lover. When she sees herself unavailable to enjoy her own infatuation, she seeks an escape, even through explosive ways. And in the same way it isn´t scary to scream all loud that she is in love, why feel sorry for acknowledging feelings that were denied and then took away by Bernardo himself? Rosa's crime is not revenge; it is a claim motivated by an uncontrollable impulse of passion.
The film opens the door to steal from the darkness the human behind the wolf, that wolf that lies to seduce, that cheat to snatch, and hides behind many faces, including the one of Love.
