Drained
Cheiro do Ralo, O

Brazil, 2006, 112 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: Black Comedy, Foreign
Program: Contemporary World Cinema
Language: Portuguese English Subtitles

DIRECTOR: Heitor Dhalia
Producer: Marcelo Doria, Joana Mariani, Rodrigo Teixeira
Editor: Pedro Becker, Jair Peres
Screenwriter: Heitor Dhalia, Marçal Aquino, Lourenço Mutarelli
Cinematographer: José Roberto Eliezer
Principal Cast: Selton Mello, Paula Braun

In this skewed black comedy from Brazil, outwardly pitiless pawnbroker Lourenço grows increasingly tormented by his own desires – and by the stench radiating from the drainpipe in his office bathroom.

Based on the novel by Lourenço Mutarelli – best-known in his native country as a comic-book artist – Drained is a gritty, tough-going but rewarding absurdist fable about power and its corrupting influence. As owner of a sprawling warehouse, Lourenço manipulates, insults and takes advantage of the customers forced by desperate circumstances to do business with him – as often rejecting as accepting their only belongings.

But as his story progresses, forces beyond Lourenço's control begin to exert influence over him. Take the odor emanating from the bathroom adjoining his office, which seems to get stronger and more repellent by the day. The more it intensifies, the more his mood darkens, lightened only by his sole unadulterated pleasure in life: lunching at a café in which he is in turn consumed by the sight of a waitress' shapely behind. But can the object of his desire be so easily bought? At what price?

Engagingly complex performances – most notably from star Selton Mello – and striking cinematography have already earned Drained and its director Heitor Dhalia high praise, including jury prizes from the São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro Film Festivals.