Fome de Amor (1968)

English title: Hunger for Love

Felipe, a frustrated painter, takes his wife Mariana to live in a deserted island. Mariana comes from a bourgeois family and Felipe is penniless. After a few days, they notice that another house has dwellers, Alfredo and Ulla, with whom Felipe was already acquainted. While Felipe begins to spend his days with Ulla, Mariana feels attracted towards Alfredo, a former revolutionary who became blind, deaf and dumb after an explosion. Mariana feels more and more ill at ease with the situation she is living in, and is increasingly suspicious of Felipe and Ulla.

Mostly mediocre drama with a few interesting moments. The last section is probably the best part, with its nightmarish atmosphere and crescendo of paranoia which explodes into ideological delirium. Much of the film, on the other hand, has its characters simply wandering about and conveying information to the viewer through dialogue. Anyway, it is a valuable document about youth in the late 1960s and the madness it was subjected to by Mao and his writings. In that, it makes a curious third-world companion to La chinoise.

Rating: 45