SHOOTING DESIRE: The Horny and Outrageous Films of Surto & Deslumbramento

In the warm city of Recife, families, houses and streets are full of secrets. Exploring memories, coming of age, sexuality, taboos, Surto & Deslumbramento's films are a fresh, yet sometimes inappropriate, breeze of storytelling about the gay community in Brazil. At times fictional, at times documentary, but always evoking the deepest fantasies and moving away from narrative formalism, they delve into colonialism, tradition, psychoanalysis and fetishism, bringing both the psyche and Brazilian history to life.

A filmmaking collective founded in 2012, Surto & Deslumbramento consists of talented filmmakers André Antônio, Chico Lacerda, Fábio Ramalho, and Rodrigo Almeida. From their works featured in this programme, Casa Forte, Virginity, and Helena's Birth use a captivating voice-over technique that immerses the audience into the characters' unspoken thoughts and desires. They prompt some questions… what is hidden behind the colonial names of the buildings in Recife? What stories are hidden in the corners, in the bus stops, on the beach, in the woods?

Among the selection, Gunshots in Nicaragua stands as an experimental short shot in film, serving as a playful interlude amidst prevalent sexual tension. In contrast, Venus in Nyke, the only fully-fictional piece in this collection, delves into the depths of desire intertwined with psychoanalysis. Here, a man explores, in therapy, his devotion to running shoes and the allure of the smell of feet. 

Surto & Deslumbramento's films are provocative and insurgent, pushing boundaries and challenging social norms with raw, unfiltered storytelling. Refusing to sanitise certain themes, the collective doubles down on investing in what is contradictory, ambiguous, playful and frivolous, going against the most obvious expectations of what political cinema should be and messing with certainties about current hot topics.