In DIAMANTINO—the new genre-busting farce by the writer-director team Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt—women have all the power. Duplicitous, mendacious, self-dealing, disloyal, and—ultimately—loving, a distaff army circles and controls manchild Diamantino on his journey toward an ultimate singularity.
Since the title character in DIAMANTINO is a Lamborghini-driving, tax-cheating, sea-disaster-rescuing, soccer superstar billionaire from Portugal with a distinctive haircut, a disclaimer at the start of the film states the obvious: “No identification with actual persons (living or deceased)… is intended or should be inferred.” With the mental capacity and emotional register of a happy, clueless pre-teen, Diamantino imagines the pitch filled with fluffy puppies bounding through a field of pink foam. But once real life intrudes—his introduction to a boatload of refugees and the death of his father—our hero loses his mojo and becomes prey to every sort of manipulation this side of Doctor Moreau.
It’s no spoiler to reveal that Diamantino manages to find the happiest of endings—as all fantasies must—and the film itself won the Critics’ Week prize at Cannes last year. During its opening weekend at the Nuart, Schmidt will be on hand to discuss his work.
Through July 4.
Daniel Schmidt special appearance
Saturday, June 29, at 7:30 pm.
Nuart Theatre
11272 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Los Angeles.
From top: Carloto Cotta and Cleo Tavares in Diamantino; Cotta as Diamantino on the soccer pitch; Sonia Matamouros and Natasha Matamouros with Cotta; U.S. film poster; Cotta and Tavares. Images courtesy and the filmmakers, performers, and Kino Lorber.