One Is Few, Two Would Fill

Written and directed by 29-year-old Odilon Lopez, who also stars, One Is Few, Two Would Fill is a pioneering work of Black Brazilian cinema and the first feature-length film directed by a Black filmmaker from the south of Brazil. Structured in two episodes featuring two different couples — one recently married, the other a criminal duo recently let out of prison —, the film blends absurdist humour and incisive social realism. The result is a bitter, biting comedy that directly confronts relations of class, work and race, exposing poverty and the barriers to a “new life” in early 1970s Brazil.