Aquarius (2016) on Netflix
Clara has lived in the Aquarius, an old building in Recife, for decades. A development company owns every other apartment and wants hers, but she will not sell.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb7.4/1022,310 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes97%
Trailer
Plot summary
At the Aquarius, an apartment building in Recife, Clara's family gathers in 1980 to celebrate her aunt's birthday. Clara has just come through breast cancer, which cost her right breast. Decades on she is still in the same apartment, a retired music critic and writer whose husband has been dead for seventeen years and whose three children live elsewhere, with the housekeeper Ladjane as steady company. Every other apartment in the building now belongs to Bonfim, a development company led by Geraldo, which means to put a larger building on the site. Geraldo brings Clara a buy-out offer and her children urge her to accept. She refuses to sell.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Aquarius (2016)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- After supporters of Dilma's impeachment suggested a boycott of the film, right-wing columnist Reinaldo Azevedo wrote that it was "the duty of people of good will to boycott this film" — and the distributor used his sentence on Aquarius's promotional poster alongside three positive quotes, in what was seen as an act of subversion.
- At the first screening of Aquarius at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, the cast held protest signs in Portuguese, English and French criticising Brazil's political turmoil, including "Brazil is not a democracy anymore" and "Dilma, vamos resistir com você" ("Dilma, we will resist with you").
- Brazil's Ministry of Culture committee did not pick Aquarius as the country's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards, a decision seen as a supposed act of retaliation by Brazil's new government.
- Brazil's Ministry of Justice first gave Aquarius an 18 rating, blamed on sexual content and drug-use scenes; the criteria were challenged because no other country gave the film that rating, and after protests the ministry cut it to 16 on the day of the premiere.
