Having a farmland artisan (Severo) in the framing story as the narrator, this anthology, consisting of four tales (rather unusual for modern Brazilian standards), starts out with a tragicomedy of sorts depicting the meeting of a down-to-his-luck backwater fisherman with Brazilian mythological figure Iara, the Mother Water (Pillar) which turns out to change his luck. As this is the story in the whole film that makes use of CGI the most, you can tell that, though a nice effort, the digital flooding, for instance, is not that convincingly real, to say the least. Also, though still of a beautiful complexion, Pillar seems rather old to play the role of Iara.
The second instance (the best in my opinion) mixes up comedy with Gothic horror when telling the story of a boy who, as a budding acolyte at the town's church, has the living daylights scared out of him, after hearing of the 'Procession of the Souls' as he comes to know it - a mythical night procession conducted by the dead people! I would dare saying the episode was somehow spoiled by the bad acting of some of its cast: At the same rate that the young actor playing the boy (de Tugny) has made a fairly good job of it, the same cannot be said of other actors, such as the rather stiff performance by the actress playing his mother.
As for the third installment, it presents us with a fairly predictable plot - but adds up some realism into the mixture, with a Xmas tale dealing with the harsh reality of the notorious social gap in Brazil between the middle and rich classes and the poor, introducing us to a failed aged actor, who, about to lose this only roof over his head, decides to embrace the season's spirit in full, by helping homeless people who are in a even direr situation than his.
The last one is more a collection of short anecdotes centered on Zé Burraldo, a gullible Northeastern peasant who decides to follow his father's last wish to the letter and "know the world - but not be his usual foolish and let people con him" - as the dying patriarch puts it well.
He more or less succeeds in the earlier (if we take managing to get to the neighboring town as 'knowing the world') but obviously fail in the latter.
Surmising this review, I'd say this is a rather entertaining (Brazilian) comic short which somehow manages to provide us with 83 minutes of enjoyment and some memorable 'what's next?' moments.
The second instance (the best in my opinion) mixes up comedy with Gothic horror when telling the story of a boy who, as a budding acolyte at the town's church, has the living daylights scared out of him, after hearing of the 'Procession of the Souls' as he comes to know it - a mythical night procession conducted by the dead people! I would dare saying the episode was somehow spoiled by the bad acting of some of its cast: At the same rate that the young actor playing the boy (de Tugny) has made a fairly good job of it, the same cannot be said of other actors, such as the rather stiff performance by the actress playing his mother.
As for the third installment, it presents us with a fairly predictable plot - but adds up some realism into the mixture, with a Xmas tale dealing with the harsh reality of the notorious social gap in Brazil between the middle and rich classes and the poor, introducing us to a failed aged actor, who, about to lose this only roof over his head, decides to embrace the season's spirit in full, by helping homeless people who are in a even direr situation than his.
The last one is more a collection of short anecdotes centered on Zé Burraldo, a gullible Northeastern peasant who decides to follow his father's last wish to the letter and "know the world - but not be his usual foolish and let people con him" - as the dying patriarch puts it well.
He more or less succeeds in the earlier (if we take managing to get to the neighboring town as 'knowing the world') but obviously fail in the latter.
Surmising this review, I'd say this is a rather entertaining (Brazilian) comic short which somehow manages to provide us with 83 minutes of enjoyment and some memorable 'what's next?' moments.
