SERTÃO 2138 (2024)

Set in 2138, writer-director Deuilton B. Júnior’s story about life in a dystopian version of Brazil’s arid sertão region follows a scientist (Clau Barros) conducting some last-minute research in advance of her relocation to the safety of an orbiting space station she helped design. But, after several cryptic encounters with a gifted young girl (Camilly Vitoria) and her ailing grandfather (Asaías Rodrigues), events take unexpected (and largely unexplained) turns. As intriguing as the premise behind this offering may be, like many film shorts, it, too, feels incomplete, a project that probably would have worked better as a longer piece. Indeed, sometimes not enough is truly not enough.