Shine Your Eyes (2020) User Reviews

A metaphor for freedom

[faer_kr · 7/10 · 10 August 2020]

An African / Brazilian drama. It's about a boy who travels from Africa to Brazil in search of his older brother because they don't know anything about him, so that he returns home to be the leader of the family, but it turns out that nothing the brother said was entirely true . A film from the Berlin festival selection. Parsimonious. Quality. At times infuriating for not knowing where the brother is. An interesting metaphor about freedom. How much of what others tell us they are really true? This movie magnificently explores that. This movie is not for everyone, you have to like festival movies. It shows broad features of African culture and how it collides with a new continent.

Psychological journey against the backdrop of a immigrant city

[ahuvldn · 6/10 · 3 January 2021]

An intriguing multilingual journey into the world of family expectations driving people to question existence. As a polyglot, I enjoyed the vivid usage of Igbo, Portuguese, Hungarian, Chinese and Arabic in this film.

A Nigerian in a quest in São Paulo

[guisreis · 7/10 · 6 January 2024]

Interesting but strange film. A Nigerian travels to São Paulo, speaking Igbo and English, no Portuguese, in order to find his brother, who vanished. Following the tracks, he finds out more and more about that nearly unknown person. Communication is often complicated due language, but not akways. I consider as a plot hole the easiness in finding some clues, considering the huge size of São Paulo and the lack of information; that good luck is too much a Deus ex machina, in my opinion. Anyway, the complexities, variety, cosmopolitism and problems of São Paulo are well explored. The attendant in House of Immigrant explaining things to him only in Portuguese, no English, and low and fast, was a very nice way to portray the difficulties foreigners face. The modern and sometimes harsh architecture of the town is also very well explored. I would like it to have a better pace and more solid basis for each advancement in his interesting investigation. As the movie advances, in its second part, we also know more about the motivations and concerns of the main character, and also about his cultural and family background. The physics and metaphysics issues are also increasingly addressed in a movie that flirts with fantasttic thriller and ends up perhaps as a sci-fi.

Melancholic, Poignant Man's Quest for Identity

[roger-99-171599 · 8/10 · 26 July 2020]

Brazilian Director Matias Mariani returns with this gorgeously shot, atmospheric and abstract look at brotherhood, melancholy and family values. Arriving in Sao Paulo from Nigeria, in search of his older brother, Amadi mingles in the African immigrants community discovering aspects of compassion, struggle, comradeship and solitude among them. As he puts up the pieces of an enigmatic puzzle, with the help of sophisticated technology skills, he unveils the mysteries of a frenetic, over-populated but lonesome metropolis, while looking for reasons for the disappearance. The cinematography brilliantly captures the sense of abandon and loss throughout the speedy city, reflecting our tumultuous modern era, and the cultural and language barriers experienced by Amadi. An acclaimed selection at this year's Berlin, Mariani conceived an exuberant, vibrant, poetic, and inventive "one man's journey" drama.

Too poetic

[omeralaa · 4/10 · 11 August 2020]

Cinematography was fascinating and unique, (Leo Bittencourt) used the 4:3 aspect ratio and it looked attractive, you can pause at anytime and you'll see a beautiful portrait. But does cinematography only makes a good movie?

The movie was too slow paced, it was really boring, (Matias Mariani) added a lot of poetic scenes that doesn't mean anything, also the dialogue was poetic.

O.C. Ukeje and Indira Nascimento performance was good but there was nothing exceptional.

The story was ridiculous and bizarre, does anyone care about what did the movie try to say? I think the movie was too personal and it wasn't for me.

Cute... Different

[RosanaBotafogo · 8/10 · 23 July 2022]

A beautiful Franco-Brazilian production, a thriller that goes to the heart of the prejudice and difficulties of immigrants in big cities, in a somewhat different plot, but super pleasant to follow... dimples, when he doesn't like it he puts his hand on the cheese and says - go away." God, what a sad legend for my dimple in my chin...