Sundance 2021 Review: The Pink Cloud – “Will hook you with its premise”

The Pink Cloud (A Nuvem Rosa) (2021) is a Brazilian science-fiction film. It was written and directed by Iuli Gerbase.

As the film opens, we see a young woman walking her dog out on a pier, somewhere in Brazil. Over the water, a strange pink cloud materializes, and moves slowly towards the woman on the pier. Perplexed by the strangely beautiful clous, the woman does not move. As the cloud descends upon her, the woman falls to the ground, dead. The dog does not.

Elsewhere, Giovana (Renata de Lélis) and Yago (Eduardo Mendonça) are enjoying what seems like a very successful date. They drink, they blaze a doob, they one-night-stand with each other. The next morning the two awake in Giovana’s bed to discover that there is a mysterious pink cloud that kills anyone it touches has appeared in the air and the city is under complete lockdown.

This is no candy-ass lockdown mind you, this is the real deal. Nobody goes outside for any thing or any reason. Food and medication are supplied by the government, delivered by drone through Hermetic portals in windows.Everyone in the city, or the country, or even the world possibly is immediately stuck wherever they were when the lockdown went into effect. Kids stuck at friends’ houses, nurses stuck with patients, patrons stuck in a grocery store. Giovana and Yago are stuck together for better or for worse.

At first the two roll with the punches, hoping that the worst will be over soon. However, no real developments are made in terms of dealing with the cloud, and the couple are looking at an indeterminate amount of time with one another. Nobody knows where it came from, nobody knows what it is, nobody knows what to do about it, and nobody knows when, if ever, it will go away.

One of the more interesting thing about this film’s release, is that it was written in 2017, and shot in 2019, prior to any of this Corona-19 pandemic business the world was menaced by in 2020, and that continues to menace us all to this day. The parallels that exist between this film, and real life are interesting on a surface level. What a fascinating coincidence.

Those comparisons, while apt in some ways, are more of a distraction from what is really going on in the film than anything else. First, our pandemic pales in comparison to the one featured in the film. Second, no lockdown I have heard of, in any country, has been as harsh nor as intense as the one depicted in the film. So the comparisons between current events and the film’s narrative kind of peter out after the first 15 minutes or so.

In full disclosure, I must admit that as I am a simpleton, I can’t begin to articulate to you what it was Iuli Gerbase was wanting me to focus on or take away from the film. I only know what I got out of it. And is usually the case, it will likely be far more juvenile than, and heinously off the mark from what real adults take away from it, and I will be embarrassed when I read a more erudite and thoughtful explanation of whatever it was I was supposed to have gotten out of it but didn’t. Just believe me when I tell you that I’m pretty sure that if you are fixating on the Corona-19 similarities, that you are missing the point.

The Pink Cloud unfolds at a deliberate pace. Sort of the way a cloud drifts through the sky. But more accurately, as does the relationship between Giovana and Yago. After all, they’ve got plenty of time together, so there’s no need for the film to rush. In fact the pacing of the film’s story is much like the pacing of real life. Sometimes it seems to go by so slow, even though it is moving by much faster than any of us would like. Things can seem stagnant, even though we are all floating down the whitewater rapids of time.

The film operates with great veracity and realism. Each of our two main characters have arcs that are executed in a very natural fashion. One can’t help but put one’s self in the shoes of these two unfortunate lovers. I found myself having great empathy for both Giovana and Yago, even when I felt one of them was in the wrong during any of the speedbumps that impede their relationship. Their emotions, and the resulting decisions they make seem totally realistic.

The entire film rests on the shoulders of Renata de Lélis and Eduardo Mendonça. While not the only two characters in the film, they basically carry the whole damn thing. Both performances are exceptional. We live with this couple, like a fly on the wall, quarantined right alongside them, yet never interacting with them. Consequently, we feel all of the tension, strain, uncertainty, and fear that they feel. We share their joy in the moments that are joyous, and we feel the stress as the walls slowly close in over time.

The film also does a fantastic job of examining the differences and the give and take in a romantic dyad. We understand the feelings that motivate each of them. Feelings that while they frequently differ, never feel oversimplified, nor overwrought. The differences in the feelings seemed to me to be a realistic representation of the differences in the ways in which people in a relationship can think. How they handle life’s obstacles in their own separate ways. The ways in which sometimes those divides can seem too wide to build a bridge across, despite how close what the two people really want might be.

The Pink Cloud is not wholly unlike a zombie movie. While there are no animated corpses piling up outside their windows, ceaselessly trying to break into their apartment and feast on their delicious brains, there are many similarities. Much like a zombie apocalypse, going outside is a dicey proposition at best, even if there is shit you need. Much like a zombie apocalypse, contact with your fellow humans is going to be sparse, and likely will not result in the kind of interaction you wanted. Not knowing what is causing the problem, nor having any kind of sense that this problem will ever be solved, or just disappear in the same way it arrived. That’s like a zombie apocalypse as well.

The thing that was most similar to a zombie apocalypse though, and the one that hit home the most for me, was being forced to live in a constantly high-stress situation, the crushing weight of hoping for a respite that never arrives, and the increasing despair that accompanies an utterly hopeless existence. Everybody has a limit to how much punishment they can endure. Some can take a lot more than others. But if there can never be an end to the punishment, what difference does it make how long you can take it? One year is as good as a hundred.

Even in a world as bleak as the one our star-crossed lovers inhabit, there are still moments of happiness, and things that make living in this Hell-on-Earth much more tolerable. But when staring down the barrel of eternity, and all the hope you once had has been completely eroded under the pummeling of the sands of the hourglass, how the fuck is one supposed to find the motivation to continue to exist?

This is pretty heavy subject material, I think we can all agree. It takes a skilled hand to be able to handle all of this without the thing becoming maudlin or melodramatic. It also takes confidence to write a film like this, and never once feel the need to lean on the science-fiction aspect of the story, as a means of either escaping the interpersonal drama, or giving our couple an easy way out of things. The details about the cloud are few and far between, and we never once want any more of them than our characters do at any given time.

This is an impressive first feature for Gerbase. The film displays a remarkable maturity, and a confident hand. The story and its execution feature great insight and understanding, and every aspect of the story and the performances are utterly credible. We may be looking at the debut of a soon-to-be noteworthy filmmaker here. I can’t envision Gerbase not finding financing for whatever her next project will be. The Pink Cloud will turn enough heads that there will be a queue of people wanting to work with her. With her debut feature she has earned enough credit with me that I will look forward to her next picture with anticipation.

As with most films that want to run my heart through the ringer, The Pink Cloud won’t be one of the films I put on in the background when I’m folding laundry. It is nonetheless a fine film. An admirable debut from a fresh voice that clearly has the goods in both the writing and directing department. The Pink Cloud will hook you with its premise, but will retain you with its astute writing, sharp direction, and impressive performances. It’ll definitely make you sad, but in this case, the risk is worth the reward.