The Brazilian film "The Pink Cloud" could have been a dystopia in any other situation. But from the screen, we see a parable. What have we gained — a missed opportunity or an interesting new perspective?
About the Plot of "The Pink Cloud"
A strange pink cloud appears on the streets from nowhere, killing anyone who comes into contact with it within ten seconds. An immediate, strict quarantine is declared, and people are forced to share it with whoever happens to be nearby at that moment. So Giovana and Yago end up locked in together, even though they are complete opposites and have only known each other for one evening. And how long this pink cloud will linger is still unknown.
At this point, one wants to advise the viewer: even though some of the many questions that popped into my head during the movie are at least touched upon by the end — yes, you'll have to take a couple of conventions on faith, more on that later.
A Ballad of Relationships
In essence, "The Pink Cloud" is a ballad of relationships, and not just between a man and a woman. It also includes parent-child relationships, the relationship between a person and their circumstances, and even the struggle with inner demons.
So it turns out that the deadly pink cloud is just a pretext to try to uncover and examine under a microscope how a person's psyche changes when they are forced to live in the same confined space for an indefinite amount of time. And to see those who share this space with them on the most constant basis.
Love of Freedom and Homebody Life
The concepts of "extrovert" and "introvert" might make you smile skeptically — after all, these concepts are sometimes too general to explain human character in all its complexity. But that's exactly what we see — the pink cloud brings together under one roof the freedom-loving and energetic Giovana, who loves to travel, takes life lightly, and is in no hurry to tie herself to a specific place, and the homebody Yago, who dreams of family and a steady routine.
Throughout the film, they go through almost all the stages that couples go through when they don't have a chance to take a break from each other. One way or another, each of them will have to break, either under the influence of the other or from hopelessness, because the pink cloud always looms in the background.
Work with Color
I would like to especially note a very interesting approach to working with light and color. Almost all of the characters' mental states can be traced through the intensity of shades of pink. A technique that lies on the surface but adds so much to the viewing experience. For her first feature-length film, director Iuli Gerbase did a tremendous amount of work and deserves nothing but praise.
Some of the most memorable shots in the entire film are close-ups of the heroine's face, which is bathed in pink rays — either terrifyingly bright or slowly emerging, like something ominous and inevitable.
Self-Isolation Beyond Our Control
Unlike, say, "", "The Pink Cloud" was not written in response to the circumstances we are now forced to live in. It's especially amusing to see the first frames of the film after all the creators' logos — it turns out the film was written in 2017 and shot in 2019. That kind of timing, right in the year of its release, is a rare find!
The second season of the series "Staged" was unnecessary, but it turned out just as engaging as the first.
Open material
Interestingly, the film hardly touches on economic or purely pragmatic topics. If you wanted to know how the political atmosphere would change in a state where people cannot go outside, where people would get money to buy goods, how those goods would be produced under these conditions, or how discontent or, conversely, blind obedience would grow — then you've come to the wrong place.
Probably, this is where the biggest questions lie — the implausibility of human behavior in the given circumstances. Many try to learn to live with the cloud — moreover, even in the early stages of self-isolation, instead of attempting to invent protective suits or means of transportation, people try to impose love and gratitude for the circumstances on others.
Besides Giovana and Yago, we are introduced to a few other characters with whom the couple communicates via video call. And when the rather ominous theme of being unable to influence the circumstances begins to become acute, everything quickly reverts to examining the same problems and dissecting the same relationships. After all, the main characters are lucky to be just the two of them in a fairly large apartment with the ability to be alone…
Conclusion
This film is about love in its many forms. Love at a distance, love in close quarters, love of freedom, love of family. About the death of love. About the rebirth of love. If you are willing to accept that the pink cloud here is just a prop, you can thoroughly enjoy the viewing. The main thing is not to dwell too much on the details and not to take the overly conventional approach to the situation too seriously.
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