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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Culture & Society

Brazilian film ‘London’ at Venice urges audiences to look beyond disability

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli’s Brazilian film “London” presents a disabled protagonist whose identity cannot be reduced to a diagnosis.
  • The film follows London, a fetish-club dominant who must decide whether to undergo further medical tests that could formally identify his disability.
  • The film is competing in the International Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival, while its codirector calls for greater public support for Brazilian cinema.

“London” arrives in Venice with a pointed challenge: stop treating disability as a limiting label. The Brazilian film by Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli places a disabled character at the center of the story as an attractive, sexual figure with power and agency.

London, played by Di Marco, works as a dominant in a fetish club. When a doctor offers him further tests that could provide a precise diagnosis, he faces a difficult choice. Naming his condition could bring clarity, but it could also threaten the identity he has fought to build.

We want to create a story that places disability and a disabled character in a position of power, as a highly attractive and sexual character. We want to create a language for this disability that we have never found in any film.

· Victor Di MarcoThe protagonist and codirector described the film’s approach to disability representation.

“We want to create a story that places disability and a disabled character in a position of power, as a highly attractive and sexual character,” Di Marco told EFE. As a queer actor with a disability, he said he had rarely seen himself reflected on screen because disability and disabled people are often portrayed through “a very violent gaze.”

It is not a film about disability, but a film told from the perspective of a disabled person.

· Victor Di MarcoHe explained that disability is a characteristic of London, not the definition of the character.

Di Marco, who also serves as codirector, insists that the film is not simply about disability. It is told from the perspective of a disabled person, while disability remains one part of London’s identity rather than its definition. Picoli said the film’s greatest challenge was persuading the wider system involved in its production that this way of portraying disabled people matters.

The filmmakers acknowledge the visibility that Venice brings to queer and disabled communities, but reject the idea that they speak for everyone. Picoli says they want to present one way of seeing disability, as something that can be good and successful, and not the end of anything. The film took almost a decade to make. Picoli also called for public support and stability in Brazil so more films can reach the international circuit.

We want to represent a way of seeing disability as something that can be good, that can be successful, and that does not have to be the end of anything.

· Márcio PicoliThe codirector described the film’s intended perspective.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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