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Rio 2096 Movie Review

Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury is a 2013 Brazilian animated historical drama film directed by Luiz Bolognesi. It is a period spectacle with a lot to offer.

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“To live without knowing the past is to walk in the past“

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The film is set in four dates in the history of Brazil: 1566, when the country was discovered by the Portuguese explorers, 1825, in events during slavery; 1968, during the high point of the authoritarian military dictatorship, and 2096, when there will be a war over water. The movie narrates the love between Janaina and a native warrior who, when dying, takes the form of a bird. For six centuries, the story of the couple survives through these four stages in the history of Brazil.

This can be considered to be an anthology movie, but it’s mostly similar to ‘Cloud Atlas’ in its structure, but done much better admittedly. Every period ends with the protagonist either supposedly dying or fleeing his perpetrators by taking the form of a gorgeous bird. Those flight sequences give the film such poetic authenticity that it seemed to resemble a timeless poem in and of itself. These moments were by far the highlights of the whole experience.

Let’s break down all four of the story’s chapters. The 1566 story is probably my favorite as it establishes the protagonist so well while being very authentic in the depiction of Brazilian natives, bringing to mind ‘Apocalypto’ in the process. The 1825 chapter is pretty good as is the 1968 one, but these two are weaker in comparison to the first and the last one. Racism and military dictatorship of the country are well portrayed, but overall they weren’t as memorable.

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The titular 2096 segment is another highlight. This is where the film jumps to the future, thus going from a period piece to a full-on science fiction flick. The scarcity of water is a theme well explored here while the futuristic cityscape looked magnificent and very appealing. Thematically speaking, the film is very short despite its fleeting length as the tortured, unhappy history of Brazil is painfully depicted. This evident rebellious spirit permeates the whole movie and that gives it much needed urgency and agency.

The immortal protagonist is incredibly memorable in his look and his bird form. The fact that he changes the race throughout, but remains the same in the contour of his face was a powerful statement on the diverse religious makeup of this country while his love definitely somehow knowing him, but being a different person was a very interesting idea that was well explored. Their romance is the heart and soul of the movie that would have been strong without it, but this beautiful romance through half a millennium gave an even more poetic tone to this already very lyrical film.

Rio 2096 is also very well scored and superbly directed by Luiz Bolognesi. The animation is absolutely incredible as it is very stylized and artistic in its look, but still very visually appealing, cool and superbly executed in the character animation and movements. The film isn’t wholly historically accurate, but that wasn’t needed for this type of poetic filmmaking. I just wish that it were much longer as the epic tone clearly demanded more than just 75 minutes, but it more than deserved its win at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

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