Private Desert

Name: Private Desert
Genre: Drama
Released: August 26, 2022
Duration: 121 min
Rating: 66
Cast: Antonio Saboia, Cynthia Senek, Flavio Bauraqui, Laila Garin, Luthero Almeida

2022

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Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews

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Private Desert (US Trailer 1)

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Movie Details & Credits

Kino Lorber | Release Date: August 26, 2022 | Unrated

Starring: Antonio Saboia, Cynthia Senek, Flavio Bauraqui, Laila Garin, Luthero Almeida, Otavio Linhares, Pedro Fasanaro, Sandro Guerra, Thomas Aquino, Zezita Matos

Summary: Sara is a genderfluid blue-collar worker who lives as her male birth identity Robson by day while caring for her religious grandmother in Sobradinho, a small town in the northeast of Brazil. Daniel, who teaches in a police academy in southern metropolis Curitiba, has been placed on unpaid leave after a violent incident that’s all over theSara is a genderfluid blue-collar worker who lives as her male birth identity Robson by day while caring for her religious grandmother in Sobradinho, a small town in the northeast of Brazil. Daniel, who teaches in a police academy in southern metropolis Curitiba, has been placed on unpaid leave after a violent incident that’s all over the news. Hulking and tightly wound, he comes from a long line of hypermasculine police and military men, including his ailing father with whom he is tender and patient, displaying none of the machismo his work demands. The only thing holding him together is his online romance with Sara, whom he has never met in person. When she suddenly disappears, Daniel drives 2,000 miles across Brazil to find her. He posts Sara’s picture all over town but no one recognizes her, until he receives a mysterious call from someone claiming to know her and asking to meet. What follows is a journey of the heart that will change Sara and Daniel forever.… Expand

Director: Aly Muritiba

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Unrated

Runtime: 121 min

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Critic Reviews

Carlos Aguilar

Sep 14, 2022

Buoyed by two superb performances, writer-director Aly Muritiba’s tenderly electrifying new feature is part sensual queer romance and part moving character study. Read full review

Sumner Forbes

Sep 2, 2022

Couple the brilliant construction with the intense performances from Saboia and Fasanaro, and we have one of the more memorable foreign romance films in recent memory. Read full review

The Film Stage Jared Mobarak

May 26, 2022

So many scenes unfold with static frames to give actors our undivided attention, letting them evolve emotionally without unnecessary cuts undermining authenticity. Read full review

Manuel Betancourt

Aug 16, 2022

The film comes alive in its second half, which deepens and complicates the story we thought we were watching, about a disgraced cop trying to run away from the violence that’s set to cost him his job and his reputation. For some, the tender empathy that runs through the film’s latter half may not be enough to offset its choice of sympathetic leading man. Read full review

Diego Semerene

Aug 22, 2022

Aly Muritiba’s film is always telling the viewer that death-ness and trans-ness bear the intimacy of Siamese sisters. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Aug 16, 2022

Director and co-writer Aly Muritiba’s melodrama is slow — 29 minute-long PROLOGUE slow — formulaic, dated and obvious considering “The Crying Game” opened 30 years ago north of the equator. But tender performances might reward those patient enough to sit through its scenic, formulaic and dramatically-limited longueurs. Read full review

Dan Callahan

Sep 8, 2022

Nothing about the interactions between Daniel and his former pen pal in the second half of the movie are even remotely believable, and so the rosy climax of Private Desert enters the dangerous realm of fantasy and wish-fulfillment, revealing that the makers of this film are as recklessly naïve and morally questionable as their protagonists. Read full review

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