Juliana do Amor Perdido (1970)

At a small fishing village, a young woman named Juliana is thought of as having magical powers, and is kept in a life of seclusion by her father, who is in collusion with an outsider who is the village's only contact with the outside world and also the only buyer of their fish. Juliana finds solace in watching the passing train and beckoning to its engine worker. One day, during a stop, they talk to each other and from then on a romance starts. She elopes with him, but the villagers chase her.

This is a potentially interesting idea badly developped. The editing style, relying as it does on endless slightly varying repetitions of shots, is annoying. The script leaves a lot to be desired, especially in the dialogue, and furthermore has some contextualization problems which could be resolved by setting the film in a vaguer time frame, or, say, in a post-apocalyptic era. As it is, certain elements are bound to raise an eyebrow, without really adding anything to the film's fruition. Take for example the ceremonies performed in the village. They seem to be African in origin, but the ethnicity of the villagers is predominantly white. Also, there seems to be no explanation for the fact that, at a conflict between the villagers and the train workers, there is not a single person bearing a firearm, on either side of the conflict.

Rating: 31