Behind the Trees [A Floresta dos Sussurros] *** (2023, Léo Carius, Thiago Cazado) – Classic Movie Review 13,588

Thiago Cazado’s 2023 film Behind the Trees [A Floresta dos Sussurros] is an enticingly odd little Brazilian gay drama with an absurdist and provocative Almodovar spin.

Behind the Trees [A Floresta dos Sussurros] is an enticingly odd little Brazilian gay drama film with an absurdist and provocative Almodovar spin, realist and fantasy and satire simultaneously. It is more of a crazy, sex-laden entertainment and probably not to be taken too seriously or too literally, though it has more than its fair share of serious points to make anyway.

Thiago Cazado is a clever, purposeful, inventive man, as writer, director and star. Oh, and he is fearless too. Like the character he plays in his film, he has sex on his mind, but also perhaps love and romance.

Léo Carius stars as Paulo, a slightly tubby, macho, bearded older man in an unhappy marriage, who accidentally (apparently) discovers a hidden paradise of sexual freedom in the forest where he’s gone for a pee while cycling (well, that’s his story). When he meets and starts having sex with a young and sexually confident forest cruiser called Luigi (Thiago Cazado), he starts to fall for him and connect deeply with him, and soon realises that his life will never be the same again, if only his pregnant wife will allow.

It turns out that pretty much every man on Brazil is bisexual and frequenting the bushes and trees (Bs & Ts). This of course is a recipe for chaos, and not exactly popular with the females. Thiago Cazado wants us to be truthful, liberate our inner selves, and be happy. And why not? It’s an obvious message of course but it can be said as often as anyone will listen to it, especially if you can find a different way to say it, and Cazado does find a new spin, simply by adding the element of true strangeness. Odd finds a way to entertain. Behind the Trees [A Floresta dos Sussurros] is fun in its peculiar way, maybe not massively, but certainly enough. It is a good film. It entertains and makes you think.

It is difficult to say whether Thiago Cazado is confirming that a life of love is preferable to a life in the forest. Maybe he is not making a statement at all. That would be too clumsy and unsubtle. You can take what you like from the film, or take it or leave it. It ends happily, by the way, with the main characters out of the woods, enjoying the lakeside view, so that might be a clue.

In Portuguese, A Floresta dos Sussurros = The Forest of Whispers, which is a much better title.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,588

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