Our ancestors tried to amplify the body’s ability by using a rock to split open a seed. The “tool”, therefore, was not just a rock – it was an extension of the body.
Spoilers ahead…
The Rotterdam Film Festival has a reputation for programming fascinating oddball fare, and Renata Pinheiro’s King Car (Portuguese) is the first film I saw that truly deserved its programming slot. It’s about a boy who can talk to cars. It’s an ecological parable. It’s a cautionary tale about technology. It’s a socialist takedown of rampant capitalism. Did I say it’s also about a boy who can talk to cars? Uno (Luciano Pedro Jr) is his name and he perhaps got his “power” because he was born in the backseat of the family automobile. His father runs a taxicab company, and assumes Uno will take over the family business. But Uno springs a surprise. He wants to study agro-ecology, agro-forestry. And we get to the nub of the narrative: Nature vs Technology. Or let’s say it differently: what the Earth gave us vs what we made with our own hands.
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Posted on February 4, 2021
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