KAOS: BFI Flare 2019: Socrates

KAOS

BFI FLARE

L o n d o n L G B T Q + F i l m F e s t i v a l 2 0 1 9

"After his mother’s sudden death, 15-year-old Socrates must learn how to fend for himself in São Paulo. Unable to collect her ashes without the consent of a legal guardian and with no income to cover the rent for his run-down apartment, Socrates sees no way out. Landing a small construction job, he meets a troubled young man with whom he forms an unlikely connection. But as financial pressures mount, so do Socrates’ burgeoning feelings, leading him to confront the harsh reality of his situation." BFI Flare

Before you watch Socrates, stock up with tissues. This trip to São Paulo is going to be traumatic.

Socrates is a product of the Querô Institute in Brazil, a UNICEF-supported non-profit that provides social inclusion to teenagers from low-income communities through film-making. Incredibly, the film was co-written, produced and acted by these kids. Watching this accomplished production, you'd never know.

It's this input that gives Socrates its rawness. It's hard to watch Socrates, compellingly played by Christian Malheiros, suffer first bereavement, then heartbreak, isolation and poverty. At his lowest ebb, Socrates cries. He sobs uncontrollably, in deeply troubling, visceral scenes of real trauma. Socrates forces us to watch, from the safety of our comfortable cinema seats, the horrifying choices this gay child is forced to make - and question our own complicity.