O Menino e o Vento (1967)

Carlos Hugo Christensen is a titan of Latin American cinema. He made his first film in 1939, and his last in 1996, and worked in every genre ranging from film noir to erotica to melodramas to horror to comedy to queer cinema, and made films in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Despite his massive output, and cultural importance, Christensen remains more or less forgotten today. Not a single one of his films have been restored, and are only available in very poor quality copies. Only two have had subtitles made for them. O Menino e o Vento is one of those two films. Set in a remote city in southern Brazil, a wealthy engineer has been charged with the murder of a teenage boy with whom he spent his entire vacation in the city with, and who disappeared after his departure. However, the truth of what actually happened to the boy, "Bent Jack", is far more strange and fantastical than anything a rational mind could conceive. Prior to Jack's disappearance, the city was plagued by strong winds, and these winds are what originally attracted the engineer to the city in the first place. In Jack, our protagonist finds a kindred spirit, one who shares his passion for the wind. O Menino e o Vento is a film full of surprises. It draws one into a lull, revealing only as much as necessary to generate suspense. Christensen's direction is both sparse and gothic, and the TV recording of the film does not do justice to his masterful black and white compositions, compositions that contain a hint of the surreal and the absurd. There really is no other film quite like this one. It plays like a lucid dream, with the same sense of slow movement and desperation. Homoerotic elements boil over more than once. Yet Christensen is never exploitative. This is ultimately a film about outsiders, and the struggle to balance one's individualism with the expectations of larger society. And yet there is also a metaphysical element in play, and Christensen more than once edges close to a kind of psychosupernatural horror. The climactic finale only deepens the sense of mystery and wonder. O Menino e o Vento is a forgotten masterpiece; a unique film without any equal.