– BERLINALE 2026: Marina Person plays an unfulfilled, yet ambitious, sommelière in Gabe Klinger’s sophisticated, São Paulo-set comedy-drama
Marina Person in Isabel
Come on, step into the lovely São Paulo sunset. Have a tall glass of natural wine. The evening is only just beginning, but the vibe is sedate. These are the gentle suggestions made by Gabe Klinger’s second fiction feature, Isabel [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which premiered this week in the Berlinale’s Panorama section, but this is no softball of a film. Successfully converting time in hardcore cinephilia’s trenches, following noted work as a critic and programmer, into a genuine directorial career, Klinger shows a well-honed gift for tonal control and social observation in this concise tale of a wine expert hoping for more in life and work, her dreams fading, but not diminishing.
Although Klinger was raised in Chicago and only recently moved back to his birth country, this is a movie steeped in localism, with Marina Person (an actress and one-time MTV Brasil VJ) incarnating the title character and a particular urban-cool cross-section of São Paulo coming under the microscope. Isabel works as a sommelière at a two-star Michelin restaurant for her day job, but as something of a national expert on natural wine, having once published a book on the subject, she yearns to shake off her snobby boss Tommaso’s (Marat Descartes) taste, and open her own, smaller wine bar where she can enjoy full creative control. Although in a live-in relationship with French sometime DJ Fred (Gregory Chastang), she experiences chemistry with Pat (the great character actor and Michael Mann regular John Ortiz), a potential US investor for her project, whom she meets when he dines at the restaurant, and Nico (Caio Horowicz), an under-sommelier she confides in, mentors and eventually employs on her own.
Like in Kent Jones’ Late Fame, another strong recent festival premiere by a former critic, you can see Isabel’s frustrations as a desire for belated recognition, in a high-status industry where she still sits on the periphery. And given that quite bougie-tastic set-up of plot and dramatis personae, this is a rare film viewing that social bracket somewhere at face value, with no scorn or satire. It would be a very rare occurrence in US and UK cinema, but has affinity with Éric Rohmer’s movies on mid-life dawdling, one of a few cinematic reference points (also including Frances Ha, Hong Sang-soo and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Aquarius [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) mixed into a cocktail that transcends film-nerd reference spotting.
Sideways, the previously (and maybe eternally) most prominent wine flick, was like mainlining half a bottle: a descent into the elation and indulgence of alcohol reliance. Here, natural wine is more a stimulus for chat and not-so-tortured introspection, and an emblem of the understanding of the specialised, down-to-earth products of a big business. Isabel is a trifle slight, and easier to be entertained by than fully enamoured with, but its quantity is a perfect pour.
Isabel is a co-production between Brazil and France, staged by RT Features, A Major Production and Urban Factory. Urban Sales represents its international rights.
