In a scene halfway into Eric Eason's sophomore film, powerful club-owner Rosso (Scott Glenn) visits a blind fortune-teller and asks whether his wife really loves him. Before the soothsayer can respond, Rosso's wife (Catalina Sandino Moreno) calls on his cell phone, sounding frazzled. As he rushes to leave, club bouncer Rodrigo waits outside, ready to report on Rosso's every move. This is just a sample of the madness and paranoia that permeates Journey to the End of the Night, a gritty thriller set on the sex-for-sale streets of São Paolo. Rosso and his sadistic son Paul (Brendan Fraser) are plotting separately to use money from a stolen suitcase of cocaine as their ticket out of Brazil. To ensure that the deal is a success, Rosso recruits Nigerian dishwasher Wemba (Mos Def) as the drug mule. But when Wemba suddenly vanishes, Paul goes on a warpath that involves a transgender hooker and the fortune-teller's dog. With flashback sequences, slow-motion cutaways, missed encounters, and characters weaving in and out of one another's lives like schools of fish, the film is reminiscent of Hong Kong triad films like Johnny To's PTU and Andy Lau's Infernal Affairs trilogy. Eason (winner of the 2002 TFF Emerging Filmmaker Award) follows up his acclaimed feature Manito (screening in TFF's +5 Retrospective) with this explosive second film. Also starring Oscar-nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno.

Directed by

Ishai Setton and Eric Eason