Movie Review
 By Fabricio Estevam Mira

Cinema is primarily known for striving to be the most precious amber in the world of arts. The time encapsulator, which will carry that moment into eternity as it was recorded, warding off the wear and physical decay of those who served as its models. And this almost magical embalming is the scent that attracts swarms of filmmakers through the ages. Not only does it attract them, but it imposes itself as sacred, to the point of rarely being contested or excluded. 'My Body Suddenly Started Shivering,' by filmmaker Joëlle Wider in collaboration with actress and performer Maja, ignores, destroys, and contradicts the illusion of eternal youth, hailed in the cathedral of audiovisual.

Maja acts like a snake that, upon trying to shed its skin, realizes there is no other skin beyond this one, and thus despairs against the reality of the inevitable decay of the body. She contemplates herself. She feels estranged. She denies herself. She meticulously explores her body and does not recognize it. Those wrinkles and blemishes cannot be hers. Her nipple is like an accusing eye of betrayal, and what was once a point of pleasure has gained a sense of guilt. And Joëlle does not hide the brutality behind the protagonist's feelings. Her graphics and photography are wild and violent, explicitly stating that the corruption of the flesh paves the way for an emotional abyss. How much of this is amplified by the gaze of others remains unclear. And probably that is the intention. What matters here is the current despair about the transitory. In 'My Body Suddenly Started Shivering,' there is no anemic concern about not disturbing others with what has at its core the raw truth of art. Joëlle fortunately is not part of that group. She neither flees nor apologizes. What needs to be shown must be shown without restraints. That is Joëlle's cinema. That is the cinema that needs to be made.