When you're a 10-year-old boy, how can you cope with life in the Brazilian countryside, expectations of you as the eldest son and your parents' violent marriage? A moving look at adult unreasonableness through the eyes of a child.
Based on the popular Brazilian novel by João Guimarães Rosa, Mutum shows the vulnerable way in which children observe the world of adults.
Life is hard for a large family at a remote farm. Certainly for Thiago, a sensitive boy and the eldest of five children. The marriage of his parents is constantly tense, his uncle is sent away from the farm and his dreamy approach seems to make his father nervous all the time.
Using stories he takes up himself, he tries with his little brother Felipe to understand the behaviour of the adults around them. For whole evenings they lie in their bedroom talking about God and sharing their fear of sinning. But it doesn't ever become clear to them what a sin is, because the behaviour of their coarse father cannot be reconciled with the morality taught them by their grandma. Thiago does his very best to be good, but the contradictory signals from his surroundings make him more and more nervous.
Mutum is Sandra Kogut's directing debut and excels thanks to the camerawork and the stunningly natural acting of the children. Kogut travelled to many isolated spots in Brazil, where she chose several children to take part. The project started with a workshop and a study of country life. Her investigation only developed into the feature film later.