Just like Salvador, Receive! It’s tough and violent, but it doesn’t leave the mess aside

I went to the premiere of the film Receive!, last Sunday, at Cine Glauber Rocha. I had already decided to attend Glauber more, which is a materialized dream of dear Claudio Marques, creator and coordinator of the space. I like being there, especially because I remember when he showed me the cinema project that he planned to renovate and return to the city. Because it is there, reopened since 2008, in Praça Castro Alves, with undeniable relevance and meaning.

(Street cinemas, for many reasons, are precious. Furthermore, they save us from that scene of leaving the theater after the night session, wandering through the empty corridors of the shopping malls with the stores closed and arriving at the parking lot fantasizing about a horror scene. I’m afraid, I’m not going to lie. Damn stress. I can avoid it…)

(Not to mention when the mall closes all its doors, doesn’t tell you which exit is and you – who needs a taxi or a bus – is left running around like a dizzy cockroach in the corridors of unlit shop windows.)

Receive!, the film I watched last Sunday, was also the dream of Rodrigo Luna, another friend (and his friend Pedro Perazzo), for ten years. Without money left, things take a little longer, you know. In audiovisual, we don’t even talk about it. What I didn’t know was that, at that time, they were making the first Bahian crime film I’d ever heard of.

Real police officer. Normal. Violent. With criminals, death, blood and no great metaphors to be discussed later, displaying erudition for friendships, at the bar table and social networks. But, very different from the police officers we know, everything happens in Salvador, with our faces. Which I found sensational.

(I tried to find out and, in recent times, there have been other Bahian police films, but I haven’t watched any of them myself. So Receive!, for me, comes first.)

Did you realize I don’t research cinema? So it is. On top of that, I forget the names of films, directors, actors and actresses. A shame. But I write about Receive! without fear, because the idea is this: you don’t need to be a cinephile, you don’t need to understand cinema and have a thousand academic references, you don’t even need to know that Glauber Rocha (the filmmaker) existed to understand everything and have fun. It’s accessible entertainment, which is also a function of art.

Which doesn’t mean it’s banal. Among other things, I think it is very important that the film presents the results of several important militancies. No text, no discussion, no touching on the subjects directly. The characters’ actions, the choice of actors and actresses, everything navigates breaking the stereotypes that we fight in theory, but still see repeated in practice, more times than would be acceptable.

(Including in the work and postures of many people who belch engagement, progressivism and intellectuality.)

In Receive!, the feeling is that everyone understood the message. Without any formality or announcement, the viewer is suddenly there in a story in which white men are also criminals (represented by Igor Epifânio and Vinícius Bustami), the body of the character who makes porn films (represented by Edvania Carvalho) is not excessively sexualized and the most violent person in a pair of henchmen may be the white woman (played by Evelin Buchegger). For example. Almost “subliminal message” and you know how effective it is.

The very choice of a black woman for the main role in a film that does not discuss raciality or feminism already means being in a more interesting world. White criminals being beaten by the police are also something, while we don’t have police who don’t beat anyone. Athletes snorting cocaine perhaps show both reality and the image of “full health” which, as we know, does not always correspond to the facts. I like all of this. Too much.

Want to see something else? It’s a crime film, so there’s death, there’s blood and so on. But violence is not explicit nor does it occupy a central place. There’s no head exploding, belly bursting, knife going in. There are slaps in the face and the result of violent actions, but not the act. I also thought this was great and a good example that this spectacularization (so commonplace for some time now) when it leaves the scene, is not missed at all.

Still coherent and smart, Receive! brings all the necessary comic relief from our DNA. With a 100% Bahian team, this must have been the easiest part. You know that thing where we have to send a funny phrase in the middle of the chaos? Okay, this is how moments of tension are alleviated. Just like Salvador, the film is harsh and violent, but it doesn’t leave the mess aside.

Finally – and also very importantly – the film hits the nail on the head by bringing in great and recognized professionals in all roles. From the technique to who appears on screen, in all roles, including secondary ones. For example, do you imagine Tânia Toko just driving a car? Or Lúcio Tranchesi just asking for a signature?

Yes, it does and it is a luxury. Then, when you see the character grow in seconds, no matter how layman you are, you will be able to understand what it really means to be an actress or actor. These people come from theater, who were trained in Bahia and well before the coaches who limited themselves to rehearsing lines and training gestures. Go there, see the difference and be impressed too.

Receive! premiered, this Thursday, in Aracaju (SE), Curitiba (PR), João Pessoa (PB), Manaus (AM), Paulista (PE), Porto Alegre (RS), Rio de Janeiro (RJ) and Salvador. Here, it is showing at Cine Glauber Rocha, Saladearte Cine Daten Paseo and Saladearte Cinema do Museu. I, being you, wouldn’t stop going there.

(A tip: the rating is 16 years old, but things are much more violent during the day, on the news. On PlayStation, they don’t even talk about it. My son – 13 – I took to the cinema. About your decision, you’re the one who knows .)

Flavia Azevedo is a columnist for Correio, editor and mother of Leo