HAPPY DESERT (DESERTO FELIZ) World Cinema: Latin Showcase

Is it possible to quantify something so ephemeral as happiness? As we watch Jessica, a Brazilian runaway forced into prostitution, it becomes hard not to wonder when, exactly, she was most happy. Certainly it was not in her sun-blasted hometown, where she was the victim of abuse and neglect. But is she happier now, on her own but forced to sell her body to survive?

HAPPY DESERT is devoid of the cliches that only serve to either simplify or sensationalize difficult subject matter. Displaying remarkable cinematic eloquence, director Paulo Caldas makes surprising choices, finding original, organic ways to document Jessica’s agonizingly unstoppable slide. Caldas always presents her as a person to be understood, rather than as a situation to be pitied and as he does, he extracts an incredible and indelible performance from the young actress Nash Laila.

Though shot largely in documentary style, HAPPY DESERT is a film filled with the rich contradictions of great art: terrible beauty, simplicity and joyful sorrow.