Through the apparent simplicity of a day on the beach day between mother and child, the Portuguese duo Marco Leão and André Santos continue in the formal vein of their earlier work – frequently shown at Curtas – and craft a film whose overall silence rhymes with the silence of unresolved relationships – the mother's boyfriend, the son’s visits to the bathroom. The theme of family communication difficulties is taken from “Má Raça”. Central to the composition of the film is the magnificent sound – as in the short-film "Infinito", for example), which with the exception of the brief soundtrack, comes almost always from exterior elements: the motorbike, the wind, the sea. The loving close-ups of the adolescent Pedro are a reflection of the Portuguese filmmaking tradition which began with Paulo Rocha and Manuel Mozos, through Teresa Villaverde to Pedro Costa and more recently João Salaviza. But there is also a love for the body, the same as in the work of João Pedro Rodrigues or Pasolini, whose “Mamma Roma” includes the appearance of the mother on the back seat of a motorcycle, clinging onto her son. The shoes gag is crucial to the narrative and very clever – giving rein to each person’s desires in the same refuges, as far as social norms allow. Indeed here in the same forests the film resonates, as in "O Desconhecido do Lago" by Alain Guiraudie, or the directors’ own short film "Aula de Condução"). (FN)