Tattoo

By: No Drama Rican

By: Amos Lassen

Near Recife, Brazil in 1978 a subversive and decadent theater troop are preparing a new show just as the military dictatorship is beginning to collapse. Paulette, an outlandish drag queen is the star and together with her group performs skits that are over-the-top and about everything from homo-erotica to the recitation of Marxist poetry. The troop is bold and leaves nothing to the imagination.
Finhina is a 18-year-old innocent soldier has come to the group to deliver a message to Paulette---his brother is dating her sister. As he begins to leave he notices Clecio, a very handsome man who is the leader of the theater troupe and he is instantly filled with lust for him.
Deusa, another member of the troupe and the mother of the child fathered by Clecio notices this and is afraid that a relationship between the two will cause contact with the military regime and Paulette is also upset about the two and feels envy and jealousy. Finhina wanting to show the older man his sincerity has a C tattooed just above his heart.
Finhina comes from a religious conservative family and has been gay-baited in the army by a sergeant who is a latent gay male. What is happening with Finhina is against the way he has been raised but he is unable to control the way he feels. It is alien to him to be among the group where anything goes. Much of what the theater troupe performs is bawdy and the actors have no inhibitions about showing their all.
Hilton Lacerda's film is based on a real theater group and the it really comes into its own with three fine performances----Jesuita Barbosa is perfect as the awakening Finhina, Rodrigo García, in his first ever acting role, is excellent and very funny as Paulette, and famous Brazilian actor Irandhir Santos stuns the viewer as Cielo the ringleader. Lacerda uses the sexual fluidity of his characters and as completely natural.
"Tattoo" shows the conflicts and reflections of a whole generation from a marginal perspective. We see what is considered to be the norm through a marginal perception..
Love is free and censorship is severe in the film as we are introduced to 'Chão de Estrelas', a cabaret and night club where theater, poems, dance, and music in the forms of traditional fanfares, samba and Brazilian popular music, compose the subversive enjoyment and freedom of expression censored by a feared military dictatorship. The film concentrates , on jealousy and unstable relationships while at the same time it explores the political situation and the repression lived at the time.
We see a gay love story that is perfectly natural yet replete with social commentary and politics.\The sex scenes are erotic and what I really like is that the actors are not swimsuit models or beefy men but just regular "Joes". The characters continuously look for some kind of stability, which seems to elude them whenever they believe they have found it - be it the soldier who has to choose between his sexuality and the lifestyle that comes with it, or his job with an income that may enable him to support his family. Then there is also the flamboyant, yet firm dramatic anarchist who tries to keep his troupe together, but constantly runs into risks of being abused by them. You can avoid the Brazilian flavor inherent in the film.