Soon into “The Blue Trail” — a low-key Brazilian fable about survival in interesting times — the movie’s runaway heroine is peacefully traveling through the Amazon. It’s a moment of understated triumph for Tereza (Denise Weinberg), a 77-year-old whose humble life had turned into a succession of hurdles. In the name of national interest, the government has instituted a draconian policy that affects older people. Once citizens hit a milestone age, they are forced to retire and then carted off to a distant, mysterious colony. “The government,” as an official explains to her, “wants the youth to work without having to worry about the elderly.”
Directed by Gabriel Mascaro from a script that he wrote with Tibério Azul, “The Blue Trial” tracks Tereza from free to flight as she rebels against redundancy and perhaps worse. Hers is an intrinsically appealing quest for sovereignty, one that starts in earnest when she returns home one day to find strangers attaching an official seal and large gold laurels to the exterior of her house. It’s a small, tidy place, and while pinpricks of daylight and an occasional snail sometimes penetrate its wooden walls, it is also hers. So, when one of these government emissaries peppers her with questions about her life and health, Tereza is baffled. She thinks that her exile will begin later in life, but the age threshold has recently been dropped.
By the time the stranger leaves, Tereza has an unwelcome government medal in hand, and has been declared a “national living heritage.” She also has an expiration date effectively hanging over her head, a designation with rapid, unsettling ramifications. At first, Tereza seems more resigned than despairing about her new situation, which Mascaro handles in realistic scenes with a light touch and some flashes of deadpan humor. In short order, though, being condemned as expired merchandise takes its toll. First, Tereza loses her job at a slaughterhouse, a quietly shrieking metaphor for her existential plight. Yet, even as the world closes in around her with smiles and directives, she begins to take back her independence.
The setup for “The Blue Trail” — the enforced segregation of older people — is bleakly familiar, onscreen as well as off. Both the premise and some early dystopian touches, like a police vehicle that carts off citizens of a certain age (“the wrinkle wagon,” as Tereza calls it), initially bring to mind 1970s science-fiction shockers like “Soylent Green” and “Logan’s Run.” Mascaro, though, is more interested in Tereza and her journey than in genre or even in the world that has no use for her. And, once she takes off, the movie settles into a desultory, episodic adventure punctuated by some minor drama and flashes of magical realism.
Some of this is very pretty, especially once Tereza climbs aboard a small boat in the Amazon. It’s easy to admire the natural beauty of the world she traverses, and how the cinematography (by Guillermo Garza) conveys the environment’s lush, enveloping splendor, its colors, textures and shimmering lights. Alas, Tereza, whose interior life remains largely obscured from start to finish, isn’t a compelling a vessel for whatever Mascaro is trying to do in this movie. And, as it drifts from one place to another, one encounter to another, one sketchy idea to another, so may your attention. Both the character and the actress have some appeal, but they can’t fill enough of the blanks for you to care how this journey will finally wind down.
The Blue Trail Not rated. In Portuguese, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. In theaters.
Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times.
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