When 80-year-old Gilda Olinto was given a prize at work recently, she felt as if she was being told “nothing more is expected of you”. It reminded her of The Blue Trail (O Último Azul in Portuguese), a film set in a near-future Brazil where an authoritarian government honours elderly people with golden laurels before stripping them of their autonomy and sending them to live out their days in a remote housing colony.
After being reluctantly bestowed with the accolade, the film’s 77-year-old protagonist Tereza realises she is going to be exiled from society – but she is determined to pursue a lifelong dream first, which takes her on a journey of discovery though the Amazon.
Part dystopia, part coming-of-(old)-age, the feature film was inspired by director and screenwriter Gabriel Mascaro’s grandmother, who took up painting in her 80s after losing her husband. It has struck a chord with older women in Brazil such as Olinto, who see something of themselves in Tereza – a tenacious woman with a desire to keep living life to the full, undaunted by the ageism she encounters.
“I see in Tereza a woman that exists in Brazil, this woman who resists and is hungry for life,” says Natália Dornellas, a pro-age activist who has seen the film five times.
“When I read the script, my whole body shook. I thought, what a good screenplay, what a good subject to be talking about,” says Denise Weinberg, the actor who plays Tereza.
At 69, Weinberg is younger than her character, and she puts her casting down to the fact that she is one of the few Brazilian actors her age who hasn’t had any cosmetic procedures. “I joke with Gabriel“: ‘did you choose me because I have wrinkles?’” she says.
The film’s universal themes of ageism and ageing resonate strongly in Brazil, where “it is practically an insult to be called old”, according to Weinberg, even as older women – who face worse ageism than men – increasingly prop up the community. Brazil is undergoing a rapid demographic shift, with the number of over-60s more than doubling between 2000 and 2023. This demographic is expected to account for a third of the population by 2050, prompting questions as to whether the country is prepared for this new reality.
In The Blue Trail, Mascaro offers a dark solution: banish all senior citizens to unburden the younger generations from the duty of care. Those who attempt to abscond get picked up by the “citizen police” in a “wrinkle wagon”, which draws on a meme that circulated during the Covid pandemic, poking fun at pensioners who disobeyed orders to stay at home.
“I don’t think the film is dystopic. It nearly happened during the pandemic. In a way, it foretells what might happen in Brazil tomorrow,” says Weinberg. “Old people are put aside.”
The government’s infantilisation of elderly people in the film also hit close to home for Olinto, who sometimes receives unwelcome reminders of how society views women her age, despite not thinking of herself as old.
She recalls being berated by a stranger who thought she had gone to a samba parade alone. “They were basically saying, you can’t be unaccompanied, you have to be dependent on someone. I was shocked,” says Olinto, who lives alone, attends carnival street parties, and continues to work as an academic.
At 74, Geralda das Graças Mendes also defies the stereotypes of old age. Like Tereza in the film, she worked too hard as a younger woman to pursue her dreams. “Nowadays I have more freedom,” says Mendes, who retired from her job as a cleaner 15 years ago and spends her time singing, dancing and going on trips with a group of friends, with whom she has even written a book.
Mendes was captivated by Tereza’s adventurous spirit when she watched the film. “I liked the idea of her running away. Walking along the river, in the forest, alone. That was nice. She’s going after her happiness,” she says.
Brazilian cinema is no stranger to plucky older female protagonists, says Dornellas. There is Dora, a querulous retired teacher played by stage and screen star Fernanda Montenegro in Central Station, for which she earned an Oscar nomination in 1999. Last year, Montenegro got the biggest box office hit of her career at the age of 95 with police drama Vitória, based on the true story of an elderly lady who helps dismantle a drug ring.
And in this year’s The Secret Agent, a film nominated for several Oscars, 79-year-old Tânia Maria has become an internet sensation for her performance in the supporting role of Dona Sebastiana, the chain-smoking caretaker of a safe house for political refugees.
“This [character of the] woman who goes after things which might seem impossible is not new,” says Dornellas, who is 49 and threw herself into campaigning against ageism after caring for her dying father. “But in the context of this dystopia, where old people really have a sell-by date in society and Tereza resists, she is brilliant.”
For Weinberg, the film – which was awarded the Silver Bear grand jury prize at the Berlin film festival last year – is less about denouncing ageism and more about offering people an alternative approach to ageing, where elderly people have a right to dream.
“It’s showing how old age can be different. It’s possible to grow old with dignity, with elegance, with seduction,” says Weinberg.