Hard Labor

In HARD LABOR, a straight middle-class couple slowly succumbs to the allures of entrepreneurship – and the horrors of an increasingly schizophrenic job market. Although emotionally in sync, Helena (Helena Albergaria) and her white-collar husband Otavio (Marat Descartes), suddenly find themselves at opposite ends of the labor force: just as she gets ready to open a grocery store (and become a business owner), he is fired from a “stable” job. As Otávio goes through a series of humiliating and ego-crushing job interviews (and is forced to re-invent himself for a new job market), Helena jumpstarts her grocery store in a mysterious (and progressively deteriorating) building. Soon enough, her enthusiasm for a better future begins to give way to a dark, pervasive doom – and Otávio’s self-upgrading morphs into an eerie transformation. Beautifully translating the evanescent forces of cyber-age economics into a Grand Guignol of kitchen-sink sensibilities, HARD LABOR is unlike any other Brazilian film you’ve seen in the last decade.