QUICK AND DIRTY: FROM INDIELISBOA

An angel dies every time a film about pornography does not show any sex, or even nudity. Such is the case with this awful international co-production of Argentina, Brazil and Spain, lasting more than two hours. There is no sexual interaction – real or simulated -, or even nudity, except for the extremely fast glimpse of a breast. This is particularly problematic when the film purports to discuss BDSM. This is just one of the countless shortcomings of a movie boasting various ambitions and lacking substance.

The action begins in a large Argentinean city. Amateur Lesbian porn filmmaker Violeta (Carolina Alamino) is making her latest film in a large studio with multiple actors and crews. Frustrated by the lack of plants on set, she runs away with her lover Rosario (Maru Marcet) and Agustina (Mijal Katzowocz). That’s despite the desperate pleas of her Brazilian transexual boss Angeles. The young women use an old and precarious Kombi for their journey, which inevitably breaks down. They befriend the female mechanics at the roadside garage, before realising that the vehicle is damaged beyond repair, and that they must continue their journey on the back on a fruit lorry, or indeed on foot through the verdant florest.

Some they end up in Brazil (not that you would know unless you spoke Portuguese and could read the street signs). This is where a mysterious elderly woman helps them to achieve their innermost and secret pleasures, aided by fluorescent goo spouting from her belly. What started out as metatextual/cheap erotica cinema and turned into a road movie, now veers into horror and fantasy territory. Virtually all characters are female, in a movie guaranteed to fail the reverse Bechdel Test.

The biggest objective of White Roses, Fall is to deconstruct. Deconstruct anything that crosses its path, particularly identity and film conventions, The gender and genre-bending intentions immediately lapse into pointless absurdity. Stagey performances are combined with a meandering and bumbling script, and student-level cinematography in order to deliver a truly insufferable film. A movie lacking originality, audacity and the most elementary execution skills. You would hazard a guess that this is Arbertina Carri’s debut feature, except that this is her seventh creation.

White Roses, Fall just premiered at IndieLisboa. Avoid it at all costs This is one of films movies so bad it makes you question your desire to ever walk into a movie theatre again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGuyBBaFKn0