“Ana Sofia”

Directed by Beto Besant and Mayara Magri

San Diego Short Film Festival

Drama

TRT 20:00

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A May-December romance between two dancers, Sofia (Silvia Pfeifer) and Ana (Larissa Alves), goes awry for reasons that feel like they should be related to their age difference but come across more as incompatibilities of personality. Sofia will occasionally narrate her situation in a way that emphasizes her wizened perspective, but in both dialog and deed – with the glaring exception of intimacy -- she bends toward domineering.

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Fair warning: “Ana Sofia” is strictly an adult affair – not for the queerness of it but for the nudity and subject matter. Let the kids go watch something else.

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Technically, nearly everything works in the film. Pfeifer and Alves are more than capable of carrying 99% of the weight of the film on the strength of their performances. They’re both believable as people and there’s also undeniable chemistry between them that helps sell the relationship. There’s also a great sense of space in both the sets and location shots, and everything looks good in just about every scene.

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The editing, though. It’s hard to get a sense of how much time has passed between scenes and the scenes themselves sometimes just stop for seemingly no reason. The drama will frequently ramp up beautifully, with dialog and situations that are pregnant with possibilities and then… it’s suddenly later and the film has decided to focus on something else. In a sense, it’s good that a short film leaves you wanting more – but here, it’s honestly frustrating at times.

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“Ana Sofia” needs more room to breathe than the 20 minutes it exists in.