*Warning: Slight spoilers* Alright, Buena Vista Social Club was a huge success... one most wouldn't have expected. So it's quite obvious for some people to try to get a piece of this success themselves - the sudden appearance of various Latin American music films seems to be the best proof. Unfortunately, "Moro no brasil" seems to be one of these tries. I'm sure Mika Kaurismäki is a huge fan of Brazil music and only made this film to celebrate his love for the country and its music. But having seen Buena Vista Social Club I just found far too many coincidences for just calling it pure chance. Well, apart from the better plot line in BVSC - in "Moro no brasil" the plot is purely based on the journey undertaken by Mika Kaurismäki, which starts with very traditional (and for most European ears unusual) music in the middle of the country and comes to the "common Brazil" sounds of the coast towns at the end. And I must say, the second half of the film was really enjoyable - great percussion music, moving on to Salsa and mainstream sounds and also covering modern aspects like Funk music from the ghettos. IMHO, Mika Kaurismäki tried far too hard being a second Ry Cooder and making this film the Brazil version of BVSC so it lost most of its (possible) charm. In addition, there weren't enough strong characters with interesting stories like in BVSC - or they weren't introduced well enough. Overall 6/10.
Review of Moro No Brasil
