Honest and interesting, Human Life is a documentary that celebrates human life, transpiring affection and willpower through a sober, precious and careful elaboration. It is a short summer proposal (68 minutes) that leaves no viewer indifferent.
The piece is a choral documentary, with interviews with characters whose common denominator is having faced the mirror of death and having come out ahead, or having chosen life over adversity. Thus, we are presented with testimonies of a holocaust survivor; an Olympic medalist who was in the situation of losing everything because of an unwanted pregnancy; a quadriplegic painter, a surfer without hands...; despite being full of hope and the strength of being a true story of struggle for life against countless adversities, these interviews also contain the hardness of those obstacles or those events that are difficult to digest for anyone. However, the bittersweet sensation is cleared with the testimony of these people who turned misfortune into opportunities and changed the fate of their existence (one of them founds a home for abandoned children, another helps in a center for pregnant women, etc.).
Gustavo Brinholi, composer (The Garden of Afflictions, Milagre) makes his directorial debut with an experienced cinematographer as his partner in the chair: Luiz Henrique Marques (Alma Portuguesa, Bonifácio: The Founder of Brazil). They both elaborate a careful piece, tender but minimalist, whose form is a gift for the eye. A story that speaks of the good in the world without falling into the trap of sentimentality, shot correctly and tastefully but with care to prioritize the content over the continent, and trying not to let the harshness of the situations overcome the message of hope.
Of slow pace and classic shooting, Human life is the result of a careful search for striking characters, dream locations (in the United States, Italy, Brazil and Germany), and the important presence of a beautiful soundtrack, the work of Gustavo Brinholi, also the director of the film.
