Despite a prolific career with his short films, the Brazilian director Allan Deberton made a splash with his Pacarrete in 2019, a well-received debut that audiences and critics admired during its release rollout throughout the pandemic. The film explored a dreamer who bothers her neighborhood over her failed dream of becoming a professional ballerina. Led by the legendary Marcélia Cartaxo (Hour of the Star), the film is on the list of the best Brazilian films released in the decade so far, according to many film critics. Yet, his sophomore, O Melhor Amigo, a queer musical, did not receive the same passion. Two years after it, Deberton returns to the themes present in his filmography, queerness and countryside communities, in his latest, Feito Pipa (Gugu’s World). The film is a selection at the 2026 Berlinale Generation Kplus section.
Plot Overview: A Queer Coming-of-Age Story in Rural Brazil
It follows Gugu (Yuri Gomes), a pre-teen boy who lives with his grandmother, Dilma (Teca Pereira), who takes care of him after her mother passed away. His father, Batista (Lázaro Ramos), remarried to Patricia (Georgina Castro). However, they are not close because he does not accept Gugu’s personality, as he is a boy who likes doing makeup, wearing female clothes, activities considered feminine. As soon as Dilma’s mental faculties start to dwindle and she moves to a facility, Gugu’s reality shifts, and now he needs to belong in a space that does not accept who he is. Feito Pipa is about a free boy who suddenly needs to fit in a place too neat for his size, a condensed box that does not fit his free spirit.
At first, it is fascinating how the director takes the time to introduce the dynamic here. We follow the daily activities of the boy, such as going to school, dancing, and playing football. Despite being a great player, his goal celebrations bother those who dislike him. Throughout a simple narrative introduction, Deberton sets the audience in the distant community in the interior of Brazil. Like thousands of Brazilians, Gugu has suffered from homophobia since a young age. In plenty of cases, the prejudice comes from within his family, his father, who imposes an ancient notion of masculinity, the one of a macho individual, a man who exposes your strength and virility. In one of the scenes, Batista shows Gugu a video of him doing splits after scoring a goal in a match. The response to it is the father gifting him an adult magazine as a means of stimulating the masculinity stored inside Gugu’s core.
Standout Performances: Yuri Gomes and Teca Pereira
The most fascinating element of Feito Pipa is the relationship between the grandson and the grandmother. Dilma serves as his mother; hence, there is a combo of respect and a blooming love from that relationship. The diminishing of her memory and the confusion of an unnamed illness, whose symptoms are very similar to Alzheimer’s, is the dramatic core of this childhood drama that deals with plenty of heavy themes. Deberton thrives in letting Yuri Gomes shine, a wonderful discovery that centers the dramatic core of the film, dividing it with the legendary Teca Pereira, a veteran in the Brazilian dramaturgy, but demonstrating her versatility in portraying a woman whose health is dwindling. Most impressively, the actor portrayed a woman in a wheelchair in Luciano Vidigal’s Kasa Branca; still, she manages to differentiate from that performance through her bodily acting, which is also a central factor in that film.
Themes of Toxic Masculinity and Third-Act Flaws
Yet, the film lacks a bit more strictness in its structure in the last act; the film is not as fascinating when it drifts apart from Dilma and her relationship with Gugu. Lázaro Ramos portrays a stiff father who is unable to accept his son’s personality and who he truly is. Therefore, he thrives in embodying the contradictory element of millions of homophobic men in the country. Even though Gugu is a top-notch player in football, an activity heavily associated with boys and men, that alone is not enough for his father to accept him as his son. He is not present in his life and does not provide the same conditions for him as his sister. In that aspect, Deberton portrays a tough reality of misogyny, homophobia, and the gender violence present in a heavily violent country for LGBTQIA+ individuals, where the violence grows within the family.
Feito Pipa (Gugu’s World) Review Verdict and Release Date
Anchored by the marvelous performances from Yuri Gomes and Teca Pereira, Allan Deberton crafts a tale about childhood in Feito Pipa, which enchants with the personality of its lead character. Even though the community around him does not accept him as he is, it is an unfortunate reality for most LGBTQIA+ individuals in Brazil.
Feito Pipa (Gugu’s World) recently played at the Berlin International Film Festival. It will be in theaters on November 6, 2026.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
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