The Cotton Wool War (2018)

[Original title: Guerra de Algodão]

Dora, a headstrong 14-year-old teenage girl from Germany has been shipped off to Brazil to her grandmother, a woman she does not even know. Her grandmother seems as unhappy about the situation as Dora, as the two have absolutely nothing in common and lead very different lives. Dora misses her friends and – feeling miserable – treats her grandmother with cold indifference. While she gradually begins to realise that her grandmother must have once lead a very interesting life of her own, it also becomes clear to her that this “holiday” in Salvador de Bahia is not just temporary. Driven to despair, Dora lashes out against everybody and is drifting towards increasingly desperate decisions.

For some reason, critics have hailed this film from Brazil as a “feminist masterpiece”, but it is anything but. It is the story about the victim of parental child abduction, about a teenage girl being ripped from her life in Germany – against her will and without her knowledge, and without the chance to say goodbye to her friends – and being transplanted to country that is alien to her. To a country that does – arguably – offer less educational opportunities and whose society is pretty chauvinistic; and to a city that is not exactly a very safe environment.
However personal the motivation of Dora’s mother might be, this constitutes human trafficking, to put it bluntly, and what happens to Dora in this film is happening to thousands of teenagers and young women every year, especially if they happen to be from a Muslim background. If the country in question was Pakistan, there would be an outcry amongst audiences and critics alike; but since it is Brazil we are somehow meant to accept the situation.

The intention of the filmmakers (Marília Hughes and Cláudio Marques) was to present the double portrait of two strong women from different generations. And they undoubtedly did that. But they failed to genuinely address the issue I just described, and failed to fully realise its magnitude and its impact on the entire film. That problem may have its roots in the fact that they have more previous experience in directing and less so in writing.

With that being said, let’s go back to the story Hughes and Marques wanted to tell and think they are telling. This is a situation with two women from two different generations and different cultural backgrounds who are alien to each other (not unlike the premise of Roads in February). And while the grandmother (portrayed magnificently by Thaia Perez) has a strong presence in the film, she is not in all that many scenes. The focus of this story lies entirely on Dora and it is told from her point of view, as a coming-of-age story. It also has stylistic elements of an investigation, as Dora discovers remnants of her grandmother’s former life and tries to piece it together from the brief glimpses that photos, letters, and newspaper cuttings offer her.

The grandmother, while undoubtedly eccentric and set in her own ways, is described as the constant, as the wise old woman. So, as the relationship between Dora and her grandmother improves, it is Dora who changes, while her grandmother merely adapts slightly. This effect is amplified by the fact that the grandmother does – to a certain extent – remain an enigma. We have good reason to believe that Dora will learn a lot about her grandmother’s life after the credits roll, but for us as an audience many mysteries remain. The filmmakers probably felt (and rightfully so) that this adds to the character and to the atmosphere of the film.

Unfortunately, it is not just the grandmother who remains a mystery. Dora herself proves also elusive in the end. Throughout the film we can mostly feel her sense of entrapment and her despair, and we witness her tentative attempts to integrate herself into her new environment and her new group of peers. But by the third act, we are left mystified by her change. We are shown scenes meant to illustrate that Dora might find a thing or two she likes about her new environment, but the change does not feel earned. Especially not the ending which suggests that she is now somehow happy with her situation. And just as an (unnecessary) reminder: the fact that Dora does in the end appear to be willing to stay in Brazil does not in any way redress the fact that she has been transplanted by subterfuge and against her will, in a psychologically very damaging manner.

So, what exactly does make this film, which risks celebrating the victimisation of a 14-year-old girl at the hands of her mother, a feminist film? I’ve heard people claim that this is a film with two strong central female characters, and that it is a film where male characters only exist on the periphery. That is both true, but this is an arthouse film, not a mainstream film – and within arthouse there is absolutely no shortage of female-led films or of strong female characters. And the fact that the male characters in this film are faceless, one-dimensional caricatures is not exactly a benchmark of quality either.

The film addresses male chauvinism in Brazilian society, but it does at all times feel shoehorned in. The issue is intended as a vehicle to show that – despite being from different generations and different cultural backgrounds – Dora and her grandmother share the same experience, the experience of male chauvinism. But it does not work, in part because the shoehorned-in elements are too few, too peripheral, and because we always feel that they are very different and not the same at all.

Now, apart from the fact that nearly everything about its central premise and core intentions is either flawed or does simply not work, The Cotton Wool War is a very well-made, very professional film. Resting on the shoulders of its central character Dora, the filmmakers were lucky to land such a strong, talented lead as Dora Goritzki for that role. Newcomer Goritzki has no difficulty in carrying the film, and her performance works even in the many non-verbal scenes and in the many scenes in which she is alone and in which her face and her body-language have to do all the talking.
Cláudio Marques has stated that he and Hughes allowed their script and their main character to be influenced by their interactions with Goritzki and by her personal background, like her three-year stay in Germany for example. And I assume that this has added to ease with which Goritzki has taken to her first role.

All the shots in this film are beautiful, and Carol Tanajura’s art direction and production design create a very believable, very lived-in world in the grandmother’s house. Everything about its tasteful interior full of faded glory feels real. The “outside world” is equally mesmerising, with Hughes and Marques clearly succeeding in their goal to produce a love-letter to the city of Salvador.

Tying everything together are great achievements in the wardrobe and sound departments, as well as Andrea Capella‘s very strong cinematography and Joana Collier’s flawless and confident editing.

It cannot be emphasised enough how good this film looks. There is nothing visible that would hint at restrictions in budget or similar problems. And despite the considerable flaws that I see in the story that Hughes and Marques came up with, I can find absolutely no fault in their directing efforts.

So, with its great acting performances, its great looks, and its great atmosphere, I am willing to rate The Cotton Wool War at 6 out of 10, even though it is, as I have pointed out, more than a little flawed in its premise and story.