Screened as part of NZIFF 2017

Don’t Swallow My Heart, Alligator Girl! 2017

Não devore meu coração!

Directed by Felipe Bragança

A twisted tale of star-crossed lovers set amongst rival motorcycle gangs roaming a remote border region. Felipe Bragança’s neon-drenched, synth-laden film could be a biker Drive as reimagined by David Lynch.

Brazil In Guaraní, Portuguese and Spanish with English subtitles
108 minutes CinemaScope / DCP

Director/Screenplay

Producers

Marina Meliande
,
Marcos Prado

Photography

Glauco Firpo

Editor

Jon Kadocsa

Production designer

Dina Salem Levy

Costume designer

Ana Carolina Lopes

Music

Baris Akardere

With

Cauã Reymond (Fernando)
,
Eduardo Macedo (Joca)
,
Adeli Gonzales (Basano La Tatuada)
,
Marco Lóris (Telecath)
,
Zahy Guajajara (Lucía)
,
Márcio Verón (Alberto)
,
Cláudia Assunção (Joana)
,
Leopoldo Pacheco (César)
,
Ney Matogrosso (Mago)

Festivals

Sundance
,
Berlin 2017

Elsewhere

As flamboyant and melodramatic as its title, this spirited first solo feature from Brazilian writer/director Felipe Bragança delivers a stylish genre mash-up of teen love, gang warfare and surreal fantasy. Essentially, it’s a riff on Romeo and Juliet set amongst a centuries-old conflict on the river border between Brazil and Paraguay, a turbulent region scarred by a dark history of colonial oppression. These days the combatants are rival Brazilian and indigenous Guaraní motorcycle gangs.

Amongst it all, 13-year-old Brazilian boy Joca crushes hard for slightly older Guaraní girl Basano, but this haughty Amazonian princess with alligator tattoos must also fend off the advances of her much older cousin Alberto, leader of the Guaraní bikers. Joca’s older brother Fernando (heart-throb Cauã Reymond) is a high-ranking Brazilian gangster, and when Fernando is involved in a deadly street race a full-scale turf war breaks out between the two rival gangs forcing the lovelorn Joca to choose sides.

With its vibrant neon-drenched visuals and moody synth score, Bragança’s film brings Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive to mind but its outré, dreamlike atmosphere is at times pure Lynch. — MM