Ana & Oto

In Rio de Janeiro, a filmmaker follows the misadventures of two young adults in existential crisis.

Evoking the playfully anarchic spirit of Věra Chytilová’s Daisies, Isabel Costa’s freewheeling portrait of Brazilian youth catches its palindromic pair as they wander the city in various states of alienation and boredom, driven to distraction as a way of avoiding their emotional issues. Shot on hand-processed 16mm stock and rife with madcap montages, scrambled radio signals and stop-motion collage, Ana & Oto is an irreverent glimpse into the anxieties of listless young adulthood – and its endless capacity for denial.