Eric Lima | A Bela é Poc / 2021

the diva of the amazon

by Douglas Messerli

 

Eric Lima and Taciano Soares (screenplay), Eric Lima (director) A Bela é Poc / 2021 [22 minutes]

 

A “poque” is a homosexual in Portuguese, which Belinho (Tociano Soares), the self-declared beauty of Brazilian director Eric Lima’s wonderful small film most certainly is. Overweight, full-faced, and with a mass of curly dyed blonde (later red) hair coiling down his neck, Belinho, fond of all things French, has declared himself a cabaret diva, and dreams of becoming the great artist he knows inside that he is.

       This effeminate man living with and supporting his disapproving father might be almost impossible to bear as he trots off to work his female friend (Isabela Catão)—pointing out the new beefy stud who has just moved into his apartment complex—were it not for Soares’ brilliant performance, which reveals him as just the diva Belinho imagines himself to be, hilariously funny, charming, and self-demeaning in the way only grand drag queens can manage to convey.

 

     For some in the Amazonian city of Manaus where he which he works in a small grocery, he is just too outrageous in his dress and his behavior. One woman insists that she wants someone else to wait on her, demanding to see the manager. When he explains he is the manager, she stalks out, Belinho, so non-plussed by the event that he closes up for the day.

      By the time he returns home, however, he discovers that his father has had a heart attack and is dead. Although the two have fought constantly, Belinho is devastated by the event, having lost perhaps one of the few beings who have endured his outrageous behavior.

      Yet, we discover that a few days later he has, astounding, hooked up with the new tough next door, who brutally fucks him. Belinho, somewhat joking, but perhaps more seriously asks when he might see him again, the brute taking offense at even the potentiality of making such “faggot” sex a regular event. And before Belinho can even explain it as simply a joke has begun to beat him, continuing in a terrifyingly bloody event, which the dying queer, bathed in blood, sees as her being all dressed in a red gown finally making the appearance of diva she has long dreamt off. Attention is finally being paid, even if it has deadly results.

 

     Lima’s film is both funny and tragic due to Soares’ brilliant performance, as well as being stunningly filmed by cinematographer Ramon ítalo in the bright colors that only such a queen can conjure up. This work is one the best of short films I’ve encountered for a long while, a truly memorable melodrama.

 

Los Angeles, February 4, 2024

Reprinted from My Queen Cinema blog (February 2024).