– The Brazilian feature-length animation by Érica Maradona, Otto Guerra, Sávio Leite and Tania Anaya is a lively blend of road movie, coming-of-age tale and buddy comedy
World-premiering in the Grand Competition – Feature Film section at Animafest Zagreb, the Brazilian film Son of a Bitch by Érica Maradona, Otto Guerra, Sávio Leite and Tania Anaya transforms a grim premise into a lively blend of road movie, coming-of-age tale and buddy comedy. Following Ismael and his trusty three-legged canine companion Bacalhau, it traces a young man’s attempt to outrun the identity imposed on him by his hometown: that of a son of a bitch.
In the Brazilian backlands (though Bacalhau – another speaking dog in the long and proud animation tradition – describes it more directly as “Hell”), water is scarce and opportunities even scarcer. In the sun-scorched desert, a fly drinking from a puddle sets off an action-packed cycle of life: a gecko narrowly escapes the claws of a bird, only to end up devoured by the dog. The opening montage establishes the film’s worldview from the outset: survival is arbitrary, cruelty is ordinary, and life stubbornly goes on regardless. Ismael longs to escape this suffocating landscape, but the prospect of leaving behind the familiar hell fills him with apprehension.
We are introduced to Ismael as his mother chases him through the small town of Veredas before collapsing dramatically onto the pavement and pleading with him to stay – the distance between them seemingly impossible to overcome. The young man is a gifted repairman whose skills keep much of the town functioning, while his mother owns its most profitable business, a brothel called Casa Rosa. She reminds him that his father abandoned them while she remained, and admits she misses the time when he did not yet know the word “whore” and simply called her “Mom.” Hovering between departure and return, Ismael once again stays until he discovers that his dusty copy of Moby-Dick was a gift from his father, Jorge. The revelation sparks yet another escape attempt toward the ocean in search of the man who left him behind.
For much of its runtime, Son of a Bitch embraces the pleasures of the road movie. Ismael and Bacalhau set off on a sequence of episodic misadventures that lead them to a musician-serial killer, a two-headed policeman and the restaurant owner Vera, who turns into a love interest. Bacalhau’s commentary and the film’s shifting encounters keep the narrative in constant motion, while exposing Ismael to distorted reflections of the world he is trying to escape. Despite touching on topics of violence against women, police brutality, corruption and gun violence, Son of a Bitch rarely adopts a grave tone. Instead, it filters these realities through eccentric characters and encounters while the phrase “son of a bitch” echoes along the journey of self-discovery, gradually revealing itself as a sharp observation about inherited shame.
The hand-drawn 2D animation, posing techniques and a punchy rhythm make the film feel like a graphic novel, with sharp framing and bold outlines that feel permanently exposed to the harshness of the landscape. Colour carries much of the emotional weight. Casa Rosa glows in saturated reds. The desert burns in yellows and rust tones. Even night refuses the comfort of blue, settling instead into warm browns that preserve the heat of the day. The ocean, invoked far more often than seen, becomes a promise of impossible freshness.
At its core, the film can be read through its opening montage of a life cycle that, to put it bleakly, is presented as a prison of sorts. It speaks to how individuals construct emotional and social cages even as they attempt to escape them. Ismael pictures his absent father as a way out from his circumstances, while failing to see the women around him as survivors navigating an unforgiving world. The question, which Son of a Bitch ultimately leaves open, is if people can ever escape their circumstances or will end up reproducing the same patterns elsewhere. In pursuing his father, Ismael risks becoming precisely what he has tried to flee: a son of a bitch.
Son of a Bitch is a Brazilian production by Anaya and Otto Desenhos Animados. Its world sales are handled by Lança Filmes.
