There’s something very special about seeing a Brazilian comedy take center stage at a festival. Perrengue Fashion, directed by Flávia Lacerda and starring Ingrid Guimarães, represents this milestone; not only by opening up space for humor, but by showing that comedy can also provoke reflection, revisit feelings, and challenge us.
Paula Pratta (Guimarães) is a fashion influencer who lives in a world of filters, campaigns, and hashtags. When her son (Filipe Bragança) abandons everything to dedicate himself to a permaculture project in the Amazon, she finds herself forced to travel through the forest, and with it, through herself. The journey, which begins as a desperate search for her son to participate in a fashion advertising campaign, becomes a journey through what truly matters.
Flávia Lacerda guides the narrative with lightness, without losing sight of the characters’ humanity. Ingrid Guimarães, already recognized for her comedic prowess, delivers a mature, funny, yet sensitive performance. There’s a glimmer of vulnerability in Paula: the woman who had to be everything herself, who overcame social barriers, and who now tries to control her son’s future as a way to ensure her own emotional security. It’s in this control that the character’s silent drama resides, and the comedy emerges precisely in the friction between the fantasy of a perfect world and the inevitable collapse of real life.
The script, written by Ingrid, Edu Araújo, Célio Porto, and Marcelo Saback, strikes a balance between humor and critique. The dialogue allows laughter to turn into affection. There are genuinely funny moments, largely due to the chemistry between Ingrid and Rafa Chalub, who forms an unlikely and irresistible duo. Chalub, coming from social media, surprises with his naturalness.
But Perrengue Fashion goes beyond culture clash comedy. It talks about single mothers who bear the burden of raising children alone, about the generation that needs to relearn how to listen to their children, and about the discomfort of leaving one’s comfort zone, be it an Instagram feed or a middle-class apartment.
At its core, it’s a film about starting over. About when the forest, both literal and symbolic, forces us to take off our heels, step onto the ground, and remember who we were before everything became a performance, before everything was for the other, when it was for us.
Ingrid Guimarães proves, once again, that she knows how to laugh at herself and transform that laughter into something greater: empathy. Perrengue Fashion makes you laugh, but it also makes you think.
You can find Perrengue Fashion in theaters starting October 9th.
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