Image courtesy of Netflix
Shine Your Eyes, the richly textured feature fiction debut of Brazilian filmmaker Matias Mariani, will launch worldwide of Netflix on July 29th.
Shine Your Eyes tells the story of Amadi (OC Ukeje), a musician from Lagos who travels to São Paulo to track down his missing older brother Ikenna (Chukwudi Iwuji) and bring him back home to Nigeria. Following the faint traces of Ikenna’s footsteps, he discovers that his brother was not the distinguished math professor he was supposed to be, but actually had contrived an intricate and nearly delusional series of schemes to accumulate wealth in Brazil. As the mysteries deepen, so too does Amadi’s attraction to this vibrant newfound culture—and to his brother’s Brazilian ex-lover, Emilia. As he closes in on his sibling’s whereabouts, Amadi is faced with choosing between his faithfulness to his family and the possibility of a new life in São Paulo.
“A movie that, by both celebrating the culture of its protagonists, the Igbo people… and the exuberant life of São Paulo, delivers a tale of two brothers which is striking in tone and aesthetic with a colorful palette of human interactions and multiple unsaid mysteries.”
– Emiliano Granada, Variety
Shine Your Eyes made its world premiere this year at the Berlin International Film Festival. Check out this Q&A with director Matias Mariani during Berlinale 2020.