INTERVIEW: MAURÍLIO MARTINS (O ÚLTIMO EPISÓDIO, 2024)

Tropical Alien talked with director Maurílio Martins about “O Último Episódio” (2024), the new film from production company Filmes de Plástico set in 1991 on the outskirts of Contagem (MG). The feature follows Erik, a 13-year-old boy who, to win over the new girl at school, lies claiming he has at home the VHS tape with the legendary final episode of Dungeons & Dragons. To sustain the lie, he decides to make the episode using his late father’s camera, calling his best friends Cristão and Cassim to help him in this endeavor.

In the interview, Maurílio Martins discusses how the film was born from personal childhood memories in the Laguna neighborhood, where he was born, raised, and still lives today. The director explores the multiple narrative layers of the work, including the attention to adult conflicts, especially Erik’s mother who works overtime to support the household after her husband’s death. The filmmaker also addresses the construction of the adult narrator laden with guilt when revisiting these memories and reflects on the universal dilemmas of adolescence. Maurílio explains how films like “Stand by Me”, “The Wonder Years” and “My Girl” spoke to him, a young person from the outskirts of Contagem, precisely because they dealt with these timeless issues.

The director explains the deliberate choice of the school show scene near the end of the film as an attempt to capture the impossible moment of a conscious farewell to childhood. “We never know when we stopped being children,” reflects Maurílio, who defines the film’s narrator as an “illustrator of feelings”, a discreet voice that punctuates the narrative without overpowering it. “O Último Episódio” released in Brazilian theaters on October 9th, distributed by Malute Filmes and Embaúba Filmes.

Where to watch O Último Episódio:

Credits – O Último Episódio

Leandro Reis