The expression “minor film” It is frequently used to define works with a small budget or limited artistic ambitions in a filmmaker’s filmography, films that play in a kind of second league compared to the author’s general level. In an erroneous way, the term is also applied, at least a priori, when the film in question is of short duration; as if the importance of something was measured by quantity and not by quality.
‘Wildfire‘, the latest creation of the always fascinating Portuguese director Joao Pedro Rodrigues, dismantles that thought with a stroke of the pen. In just 67 minutes the filmmaker throws all his obsessions, worries and his characteristic visual ideas onto the screen, forming an exercise in extremely free and deeply political cinema, stripped of any narrative convention.
From the year 2069 to a fire school
The movie starts in the future 2069 -the choice of the year, obviously, is not accidental-, on the deathbed of King Alfredo of Portugal, an uncrowned monarch. Behind him is a huge 18th-century painting by José Conrado Roza entitled ‘The Marriage of the Negro Roza’ -later renamed ‘The Wedding Masquerade’ for its racist connotations- depicting the black dwarves of Queen Maria of Portugal. . Thus, Rodrigues already introduces a key theme in his film: postcolonialism.
Like most European countries, a fundamental part of Portuguese history comes from that time. Shortly after, we leave the future timeline to delve into Alfredo’s adolescence in 2011, and how he decided that he wanted to become a firefighter, concerned about the continuous fires that devastated Portugal year after year. At the fire school, he falls in love with Alfonso, a young black man with whom he will discover carnal pleasures.
In what already seems like an impossible cocktail of themes, Rodrigues also incorporates the alarming environmental situation, presented through a musical scene where the protagonist sings a famous Portuguese song from the 20th century, ‘Uma árvore, um amigo’, together with a children’s choir. Of course, in the director’s mischievous and transgressive cinema, nothing is innocent.
In that same scene, sexuality already appears, one of his continuous explorations, establishing an amusing analogy between the phallic shape of the enormous trunks of the forest and the imminent sexual awakening that Alfredo will experience with Alfonso minutes later.
‘Fuego fatuo’: brief, cultured and hooligan
‘Fuego Fatuo’ is Rodrigues’ most decidedly comedic film, and also his most theatrical. The doors in the royal family home function as closing curtains, the performances are grossly over-the-top, and the atmosphere achieved is always intentionally amateurish.
In the best scene in the movie, the firefighters, the epitome of masculinity, play with each other naked, forming works of art (‘Tarquinio and Lucrezia’, by Titian; ‘Salome with the Head of John the Baptist’, by Caravaggio) for Alfredo to guess, but despite his real education, knows none. In that same line of exploration of the masculine corporality, a brilliant and elaborate choreography between the protagonists serves as the climax of his desire.
Although ‘Fuego Tuo’ seems to approach his social critique by going over all the issues superficially, in reality, there is much more to scratch in Rodrigues’ musical fantasy. It’s such a movie refined and condensed that, although certain aspects are only mentioned once or are reduced to a simple comic gag, they resonate strongly when reflecting on it.
With almost no effort (seemingly), the filmmaker manages a short work but brimming with meaning; cultured and hooligan in equal parts.
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