Icarus Films will be teaming up with Distrib Films on May 25 for the domestic DVD debut of award-winning Brazilian filmmaker Sandra Kogut’s latest, Three Summers.
In Brazil, as an ordinary citizen, you expect a certain amount of corruption. It is the nature of the beast … you live with it. Writer/director Sandra Kogut (Mutum, Campo Grande) has taken an actual event from 2014, “Operação Lava Jato” (which literally translates to Operation Car Wash) and has turned it into a marvelous black comedy. But, the storyline for Three Summers does not focus on the obvious, which makes it such a delight.
In an attempt to bat-down rampant corruption among the elites of the country, over a thousand arrest warrants were issued, which sent the accused either scurrying to parts unknown or lawyering-up. You could make a perfectly good film about the entire operation, and, in fact, two such films were spawned from the actual events — director Marcelo Antunez’s Federal Police: The Law is for Everyone and the Netflix series, The Mechanism.
However, Kogut decided to focus on the “little people” who had their lives spun around by the chaos of the events. To this end we are introduced to Madá (Regina Casé — The Second Mother, Made in China), a housekeeper, with an entrepreneurial spirit, which makes her quite valuable for the “elite” family she works for. She keeps the property in good order, the staff in line and everything hums along as a result of her force of will; her efficient management style, if you will.
Kogut has broken the story down into three acts — before (establishing), the event (how the family reacts and the effect this has on Madá and the staff) and the “after” (overcoming the chaos). Hence the title, Three Summers (summer, it should be noted, in Brazil is Christmas up here).
In the opening, we are introduced to Madá and her employer, Edgar (Otávio Müller), but more importantly we learn how Madá runs the show and how she has plans for her future. She is every bit a businesswoman, even if it is on a small scale.
We then shift to the following Christmas season (the second summer) and Edgar is out the picture and his wife and son have fled to Europe, leaving behind Edgar’s elderly father, Lira (Rogério Fróes), who is wheelchair-bound. Madá has been left with nothing to manage things … and here is where her skill-set kicks in.
We won’t give away the “third summer,” but let us just say that overcoming all obstacles is very much in Madá’s wheelhouse. So devious, so creative … so much the businesswoman.
Three Summers is in Portuguese with English subtitles.
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