Sleep with Your Eyes Open

Taiwanese Kai arrives in Recife, eastern Brazil where she attracts the surprised gaze of locals who, as they admit, aren’t used to seeing tourists. But Kai is no ordinary globetrotter. She is a melancholic vagabond hoping traversing foreign cities will serve as salve for her broken heart. One day, the girl meets a group of Chinese migrant workers. The brief encounter offers the to create a fleeting sense of community among those struggling with loneliness and rootlessness. In Sleep with Your Eyes Open, however, director Nele Wohlatz is interested in more than just existential reflections. Equally important for the plot are the bitter observations on social inequity in the spirit of Kleber Mendonça Filho, who ultimately gets production credits here. Impressive, devoid of a strict plot structure, based on the interplay between professional and amateur actors, Sleep also features big-city poetry and subtle humor akin to the films of Bas Devos. As a result, Wohlatz's movie – although dense with meanings and contexts – retains the lightness that allows the audience to derive authentic fun from the screening.