Poetic Pain

Using the fluidity of water to shape a single account of love being discovered and lost, "Gotas" combines a range of themes and elements to create a story that shares an intrinsic universality with its message to its audience. Love is an emotion that seems inherent to human nature and therefore something that every one can relate to in some way whether it be finding true love or spanning to the opposite spectrum: the absence of love. Here we are introduced to Isabella and Davi, a couple who has experienced the joy of falling in love and the pain of finding that their love has not led them to the same destination but instead to a place of complication and resentment. As an audience, we experience their relationship in different stages and are able to see a story of the genesis of love spanning to the break up and why it happens.

Both Isabella and Davi are in love. They discuss it at length, and even in the midst of their break up, there is a presence of pain because they realize that they are still very much in love but can not be together. As implied by the dialogue, Davi has created an issue for Isabella through the course of their relationship. The more time they spent together the more expectations Davi had of Isabella. The pressure of feeling inadequate became like the breaking of a dam for Isabella and the flood of resentment overcame the relationship. In the final scene when they are actually breaking up, they both realize that they fell in love with idea of love and they realized, perhaps almost too late, that they were not meant for each other. The audience is left with a painful ending as the two walk away from each other.

The beauty of the film is the subjectiveness it allows for its audience to take. "Gotas" shows a couple in three different perspectives: what she says, what he says, and what the camera shows. As stated by Andre Felipe Cara de Mederios, producer and director of the film, "There is no message that we were trying to convey. Presenting a film with no agenda or personal messages allows a beautiful thing to happen: people use their ability to freely interpret what they see therefore allowing them to critically apply that message to their own lives." After watching the film, some people may choose sides in the break up, others may reflect on their own relationships and their own experiences of ending a relationship.

It is nice that there is a forum such as YouTube for people worldwide to present and their videos. For people like Andre Felipe who are just starting comissioned projects like this, it is a good opportunity to showcase his work. Personally, I think that if a film like this would be received better if presented in a different media. Frequently people stereotype sites like this to provide a certain kind of entertainment so often beautiful pieces of work get overlooked.