‘Private Desert’ Film Review: Pen Pal Turns Stalker in Morally Questionable Brazilian Import
thewrap.comspoiler: Fernando tells Daniel to go to a nightclub called Vibe, where Sara will be waiting for him. Daniel does as he is told, and he makes a silent connection with a woman there, but then she runs out of the club.
We see Sara running out to Fernando’s car, and they go back to his place, and this is when we learn her secret: she takes off her wig and now presents as a male named Robson (Pedro Fasanaro). “He’d never accept me, right?” Sara/Robson asks.Female pronouns are used for Sara in the press notes of “Private Desert,” but Dos Santos refers to her as Robson/Sara, and on screen Robson/Sara is portrayed as non-binary or genderqueer.
Toward the end of “Private Desert,” after Daniel has discovered what is going on, we hear his former pen pal say, “I’m Sara, Robson…many things.” This is made even more confusing when Fernando and male-presenting Robson refer to each other humorously as “girl” in the old-fashioned gay-guy way.
But sorting through the gender issues here becomes a moot point because, in either mode, Sara/Robson is such a disappointing dud of a character: passive, naïve, and with very little personality.
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