A Strange Path
**Seen for the 2024 Atlanta Film Festival.
Over the past few years, I’ve found myself drawn to films that blur the lines between reality and fantasy to tell stories of facing the past. I don’t know when, exactly, that started, but I know a lot of my favorite films over the past six years have had that at their center. In his drama, writer-director Guto Parente is challenging the audience to confront our fears about reconnecting with family, and facing questions as to what might happen if we do. “A Strange Path” is about reconciliation, and some of the internal logic feels faulty, but its lasting impact is powerful.
David (Lucas Limeira) is a young filmmaker from Portugal who is coming home to Brazil for a film festival. It is the first time in a long time since he has been home- he left with his mom years before- and he is meeting up with friends, and shares calls with his wife from home. He isn’t sure if he’s going to try and meet his father, though, whom he lost track of earlier in life. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hits, shutting down the film festival and the world, David is stuck. Under these conditions, he visits his father, Geraldo (Carlos Francisco), and while they get along enough for David to stay with him when he’s kicked out of his hotel, theirs is a tenuous peace.
When COVID hit, it both brought families closer together, in terms of proximity, while also tearing some apart; I know of some friends who struggled during the pandemic, and couples that did not make it to the other side together. “A Strange Path” uses tricks of fiction to ground these emotional ideas, and that is where the film finds its strength. As we begin to think about what the third act is implying about everything that came before, it’s tempting to simply say the film doesn’t hold together from a narrative standpoint. That depends on what narrative you think the film is going for. Logically, the film does, indeed, feel like it’s raising more questions than it answers, but emotions are not always logical, and it’s David’s emotional journey that matters most in this film. Emotionally, Parente’s film is looking to explore catharsis through creative expression, and the way he does so really impacted me deeply. When we don’t feel as connected to a loved one as we might want to be, finding ways to intellectually connect with them on a deeper level matter, especially if we know that our time to do so in this world has passed us by. I hate writing it that way, as it gives up a key plot point, but watching the film, I found myself thinking about my feelings about my own father after his passing in 2013. We were more in our lives than David and Geraldo are here, but his passing was so sudden- and my reaction feels (in retrospect) so muted that I don’t know that he truly realized how grateful I was for him. David has moments in this film, when he fears he’s lost his father forever, that take me back to some of my own feelings. In that way, “A Strange Path” was a movie I didn’t realize I needed, and am so blessed to have had cross my path. This is a powerful, empathetic work.
