The Blue Trail- Review

Winner of the Silver Bear at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival, O Último Azul (The Blue Trail), directed by the acclaimed Gabriel Mascaro (Boi Néon-2015) and filmed in the Amazon, presents us with a dystopian Brazil not too far in the future, where segregation of the elderly is mandatory.

O Ultimo Azul - Cartaz oficia

From there, we follow the character Teresa (Denise Weinberg), a meatpacking plant worker who, after turning 77, is reminded by government agents that she is now a woman in need of extra care and must be transferred to a place called Colônia.

It is already known to the character and intrinsic to the viewer that this Colony is a place akin to a concentration camp. The mandatory transportation, the clothes to be worn, and the fact that the elderly can no longer live in society generate Teresa's revulsion at going to the place of departure.

O Último Azul

She begins a quiet escape so as not to arouse suspicion. Teresa wants to get to a place where she can be free at least one last time before going to the Colony.

At the beginning, we are introduced to Cadu (Rodrigo Santoro), who navigates the rivers with his boat, carrying legal and illegal goods, and accepts Teresa's offer of money to take her to her destination.

Through fate, Teresa begins to feel freer and less inclined to return home and avail herself of the aforementioned services offered by the government. She begins a journey of self-discovery, sailing up and down the river with the lightness of the boats, the freshness of the forest breeze, and the views of the sky in its various shades of everyday life.

Cadu e Teresa

Government oppression often takes the form of LED billboards, planes flying banners, television propaganda, and suspicious people.

Enter the character Ludemir (Adanilo), a typical opportunist who takes advantage of others' goodwill and circumstances. Teresa finds herself so trapped that she rethinks her own decision to place herself at the mercy of the government and be transported to the dreaded Colony.

In the meantime, we are introduced to a person immune to the evils of this dystopia, the Cuban Roberta (Miriam Socarras), who brings lightness in her manner, her speech, her accent, and is an elderly woman whose freedom has been decreed by the government. Teresa joins her on her journey on the boat, selling products that are a realistic metaphor for how close our country is to this dystopia.

Teresa and Roberta lose and find each other at the same time with similar ideas of an ideal world, with music and hobbies that bring relief from all the oppression suffered by Teresa and by us in the first and second acts of the film.

Teresa e Roberta

Guillermo Gaza's photography is a delight in itself, with many outdoor scenes depicting nature, riverside houses, dirt roads, and the government's propaganda technology.

The soundtrack brings us up to speed with feelings that are occasionally interrupted to make way for popular music from the place where the story takes place.

Finally, The Last Blue impresses us with how close this brief future may become, but the small flame that makes us free humans remains independent of our age. It is never too late to rediscover ourselves, like Tereza, who decides to truly live and meet people with similar interests in her old age. It is never too late as long as there is life, there is hope.

Teresa