Daughters of Yemanja
(YEMANJAN TYTTARET) ((FINNISH-BRAZILIAN))
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Sini ... Petra Karjalainen
Tiago ... Lui Mendes
Jorge ... Anselmo Vasconcelos
Sissi ... Eeva Tikka
(Portuguese, Finnish and Englishdialogue)
Frequent flier miles is all the producers are going to reap from "Daughters of Yemanja," a terminally awkward bout of navel-gazing by a Finnish femme in the 'burbs of Rio de Janeiro. First feature by shorts- and documaker Pia Tikka, partner of Mika Kaurismaki, is almost a catalog of mixed-up-Westerner-in-an-exotic-location cliches.
Sini (Petra Karjalainen) arrives in Brazil to find her long-lost sister, Sissi (Eeva Tikka), whose husband, Jorge (Anselmo Vasconcelos), says she disappeared two months earlier. Fending off an advance from Jorge, Sini takes up with his black gardener, Tiago (Lui Mendes), and the pair eventually track down a corpse in the local morgue. Only later, by chance, does Sini discover her sister is still alive.
Aside from a dull, unfocused central character and performances that verge on the amateurish, the movie is kitted out with yards of existential ramblings that essentially lead nowhere. Theme, if anything, is the need to believe in oneself, but this is lost in lotsa cloudy cross-cultural musings and animistic double-talk.
Technically, the film is only so-so, with some unattractive color. Title refers to the local goddess of the sea, under whose protection the sisters eventually see themselves.
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