In Bijupirá, ten-year-old Tomé (Enzo Gois) lives on a fishing trawler with Reinaldo (Heraldo de Deus), off the coast of Bahia. Their days are like the ones before—hauling in nets and catching fish. One morning, they catch an odd-looking fish known as a remora. The two share a tense exchange about the parasite that lives off larger fish, with Reinaldo dismissing them as useless. The boy quietly takes this to heart, seeing himself as one of those unwanted creatures.
After overhearing Reinaldo speaking to his boss about being unable to keep the boy on the boat, Tomé secretly takes the small skiff and slips away into the open sea, while Reinaldo heads to a new location. Alone and frightened, Tomé drifts farther as the waves and wind carry him out of sight. Reinaldo realizes the boy is missing and desperately searches for him across the vast, indifferent ocean until it gets dark, with no luck.
“The boy quietly takes this to heart, seeing himself as one of those unwanted creatures.”
Director Eduardo Boccaletti explores themes of belonging, isolation, and redemption in Bijupirá, inspired by his own childhood near the sea. Drawing from his Catholic upbringing and his parents’ influence—a therapist mother and seafaring father—he merges emotional introspection with the vastness of the ocean. The result is a poetic reflection on what it means to feel lost yet still long to be found.
Bijupirá is a beautiful and reflective story about feeling lost and finding a place where you belong. Boccaletti captures these emotions perfectly in the eyes of his young protagonist, played beautifully by Enzo Gois. The filmmaker uses imagery of a shark and its parasite to convey every thought and feeling in Tomé.
What begins as a simple story of a child and his guardian becomes an introspective meditation on identity, faith, and the deep human need to belong.
"…a beautiful and reflective story..."
