Heraldo has a target on his chest. No one knows this more than he does, who even verbalizes this constant anguish at a certain point in “Motel Destino”. Director of road and airport films, Karim Aïnouz brings in his new work an escape that may be more literal than the previous ones, in a captivity that is half fascinating, half macabre, in a setting that may not translate so well abroad, but is ours. I am referring to the motel in the film’s title.
It is there that the aforementioned Heraldo, the protagonist played by Iago Xavier, hides after an attempted robbery. It is also where the couple Dayane (Nataly Rocha) and Elias (Fábio Assunção) live and work. A neon labyrinth that activates not only the clients’ desires, Motel Destino also stirs the traumas of those who live always on alert.
The sun continues to scorch outside and invades every possible crack, reminding that there is a world still looking for Heraldo. Even if they say no one will find the young man inside the motel, Karim never lets his protagonist feel safe. Although he finds in Dayane someone who truly sees him, he also has to deal with the counterpoint of facing the famous good citizen in the figure of Elias, a constant threat that always seems ready to materialize – after all, for him, “a good criminal is a dead criminal.”
AN INSEPARABLE REFLECTION OF A TIME
The famous (and somewhat clichéd) maxim that a film is a product of its time keeps hammering in my head every time I think about this new work by Karim. Back in contemporary Brazil, he seems not only to reflect Brazil during and post-Bolsonaro government (and the conservative rise as a whole), but also confronts it through the main trio.
Others’ pleasure is a source of profit and satisfaction for Fabio Assunção’s character (completely at ease in Karim’s universe), but his facade is entirely hypocritical and conservative. Outside those walls, he never misses a mass. Inside, he is an abusive husband totally out of sync with his wife – and this is seen in even banal moments, like the scene where he dances completely out of rhythm with her and Heraldo, who seem perfectly synchronized.
Karim employs a voyeuristic tone reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock and his “Psycho”, in a story of sweat and constant tension, both sexual and violent. “Motel Destino” is a film that reveals and gives space to those who live life with the pedal to the metal, always with their eyes on the next hiding place. And, for this, once again he relies on a cast (which includes the Amazonian Isabela Catão), who, unlike Elias when he tries to dance “Pega o Guanabara”, are in total immersion and harmony.
