By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Marcelo Lordello
Starring: Elayne de Moura | Geórgio Kokkosi | Irma Brown | Jéssica Gomes de Brito | Maria Luiza Tavares
Original language title: Eles Voltam
Country: brazil
Year: 2012
Running time: 100
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2595664/combined
Bruce says: “On a remote highway in northern Brazil a car pulls over and suddenly two young kids, a boy and a girl, are standing alone by the side of the road. They have not been deposited at any specific destination. Peu (Geórgio Kokkosi), a teenager, and Cris (Maria Luiza Tavares), a girl of twelve, have been quarreling endlessly in the backseat of the family car and, as a result, have been thrown out by their parents to ostensibly teach them a lesson. Cars and trucks whiz by and a young man on a bicycle passes them with obvious curiosity. The two kids begin thinking they are playing some sort of waiting game. They wait and wait. They call their parents over and over on their cell phones. Hours later Peu decides to walk to a gas station near where they were vacationing in hopes their parents would contact someone there. Cris waits amid the sounds of traffic that are threatening.
“The next day Cris is still sitting in the same spot and the boy on the bicycle returns questioning her, ‘you from around here? Did you sleep here? Say something.’ ‘My parents left us on the side of the road,’ she mumbles. ‘No way. Why?’ the boy queries. ‘My brother says they were punishing us,’ is the
answer. The boy insists she go to his home where his mother will feed her and where she can spend the night.
“Fátima (Mauricéia Conceiҫão) is a hard working single mother with several children who also know how to work the system. ‘Killing herself working all the time,’ is how one child sums it up. Fátima sizes up Cris with one glance – Cris’ clothes and demeanor give her away – but Fátima‘s sense of decency combined with mothering instincts put her in protective mode. She takes Cris in and cares for her. Cris is silent most of the time; she is terrified. Fátima is direct. ‘Listen up girl; I’m here to help. So you better start talking.’ Cris discovers that she is in a village of squatters. But they are not shiftless or dirty, as she has been led to believe. Fátima takes Cris with her to clean houses. One day as they walk home along the beach Cris sees the vacation home of people her family knows. Their daughter is there, having late afternoon sex in the pool. Cris waits until the young woman is alone and confronts her. Soon Cris is driven home. What awaits her is beyond her wildest dreams.
“THEY’LL COME BACK is simple and effective. Writer/Director Marcelo Lordello employs good, solid storytelling to document Cris’ emotional journey from a spoiled pre-teen to a much more sophisticated citizen of the world. Lordello reminds us that transformation is often subtle, barely visible to those not in the know.
“Lordello is part of a burgeoning film community in Recife, the metropolis in Northeastern Brazil. If THEY’LL COME BACK is vaguely representative of overall film quality, there will be many more films of interest coming our way in years to come. 4.5 cats
“(THEY’LL COME BACK screened at the 2013 New Directors/New Films Festival co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln center and the Museum of Modern Art.)”