Mutum

Mutum is the name of a remote region in Brazil, the setting for this accomplished mood piece about the adult world seen through the eyes of a small boy, Thiago. Mutum also means mute, and although Thiago is not silent, he certainly speaks little. Finally, Mutum means black bird, and this represents something of his father's dismissal of the boy. A sensitive ten-year-old, Thiago is loved deeply by his mother, but her implied infidelity sees him unwillingly drawn into a secret. His brother Felipe is his friend and confidant, but his own anxieties only add to Thiago's vulnerability. The harsh, unyielding landscape offers little by way of a future, and when family circumstances worsen, it seems that a move to the city is the only way for him to escape the narrow world of his childhood. Anchored by an exceptional performance by its non-professional young lead, Sandra Kogut's adaptation of the famous Brazilian novel Campo Geral successfully blurs the boundaries between documentary and fiction.