Diamantino is definitely one of the bizarre gems shown at this year’s Warsaw Film Festival. The Portuguese film is viewed a bit like a collage of YouTube videos, modified additionally by a talented online artist. Contemporary cinema of attractions – fluffy dogs, football star (Diamantino evidently resembles Christiano Ronaldo) and commercials – are mixes with the hot topics of today’s Europe: refugees, extreme right and LGBT community. All this is served on oneiric-fun tableware of amiable special effects (e.g. bigger-than-the-goal puffy dogs in pink cotton candy clouds).
It sounds absurd, but there is a method to it. At first glance, a mosaic composed of mismatched elements turns out to be very consistent at distancing itself appropriately. Here, a detached from reality, sinless, intelligence-free Diamantino becomes a perfect symbol of the character of modern Europe. Firstly, the hero lives a dream and in this dream is cut off from reality and misunderstanding it, but also is protected from this reality – by the family and the authority of the father-trainer. Who are the refugees, Diamantino asks his father. They are the escaping riders of the rough waves, says the father, supporting the fairy-tale bubble of his son’s world.
Secondly, the hero’s sexual identity (and actually also gender) is not clear. He discovers it slowly (e.g. growing breasts) and tries to understand it. This sexual fluidity is something very delicate, originating from somewhere before the order of maturity. It is a need for understanding, acceptance and love that Diamantino experiences little in his family. Evil twin sisters (sic!) are using his innocent sensitivity, detachment and well, lack of intelligence, for their evil purposes, suppressing his individual development.
Thirdly, living in a kind of intellectual isolation, the hero becomes vulnerable to manipulation. Childish naivety and joy of life do not allow him to see the hidden meanings and contexts behind the advertising sessions director or what lies behind the research of Dr. Lamborghini (the only thing Diamantino is able to feel is the discomfort).
Slowly, however, in the psychoanalytical-romantic relationship with the adopted son-refugee (in fact a lesbian agent) he discovers the meaning of sex (both biological and cultural), love and carnality, as well as where the real threat comes from. The straight-lined celebrity footballer – and at the same time the film’s narrator – leads the viewer through the complicated dilemmas of the modern world in which it is difficult to find himself and educates with a satirical, sleepy-absurd fervor. And he does it more effectively than the best lecture.
Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt did a great job deconstructing reality and using what is best and lowest on the Internet: cute animals and cheerful-stupid everyday performances. That’s how you should break the limits of visibility.
