Filmmaker Sandra Kogut’s subtle dramedy is not to be confused with a 2017 Australian rom-com also called Three Summers. Kogut's feature unspools in the unforced, naturalistic manner often associated with the masters of Iranian cinema (though with more pop tunes on the soundtrack). It may seem slow going at first, but then the viewer is transfixed.
Mada (celebrated Brazilian actress Regina Casé), middle-aged, unmarried, and childless, lead a small staff of housekeepers, chefs, and caretakers for a wealthy Rio de Janeiro dynasty while trying to carve out a little extra side business for herself. Then the husband is arrested in a massive public-corruption scandal – one of many afflicting the rich beach-side neighborhood.
Most of the family flees with the exception of an ailing, semi-reclusive patriarch (Rogério Froes) not part of the police investigation. Over the next few years, it is low-born but resourceful Mada who finds ways of looking after the old man and paying her cohorts to stay on. Her schemes for keeping the mansion and estates together include using them as lease properties, a TV shooting set, and even a tourist destination so gawkers can look at the dwellings of now-infamous white-collar criminals. Mada may be ill-educated and ill-regarded, but she is no fool or beaten-down, passive maid.
Cinephiles may compare-contrast with Remains of the Day for its portrayal of household-domestic society. If the narrative hangs loose or moves at a low boil (it could well have gotten away with a soft PG rating), it carries the ring of truth with it and the bittersweet rhythm of everyday life from the downstairs perspective of the upstairs/downstairs dichotomy. Recommended for foreign-language collections. Aud: P.