The Sky Above

In their hometown of Belo Horizonte, an enthusiastic group of young people founded the audiovisual collective Teia in 2003. The IFFR has already shown several of Teia’s special documentaries, such as Accident (Pablo Lobato) and Like Water Through Stone (Marilia Rocha). Another founder, Sérgio Borges, made The Sky Above. He follows three men aged about 30 who live several days of their own lives in front of the camera.
Everlyn Barbin graduated from university, but since this transsexual started taking hormones and dressing as a woman, she hasn’t managed to find a job. She says that she fulfils her need for love from her work as a street prostitute. Lwei is half Angolan and half Portuguese and says he is suicidal, and has a spastic little son. Even though he has many plans for novels, he has never worked in his life and is supported by his second wife. Finally, Murari Krishna is a football supporter, a celibate Hare Krishna, telephone marketer and graffiti artist.
The Sky Above is a beautifully shot portrait filled with subdued drama about complex, paradoxical identities in the 21st-century city. The editor, Ricardo Pretti, forged it into a poetic and spiritual unit that often feels like a feature film. That also makes it a meditation about real and unreal and about the effect of cinema itself.