The Bite (Pedro Neves Marques, 2019) (Patreon)

Another form of tropical malady has taken hold in Sao Paolo, and it's up to a group of renegade entomologist-epidemiologists to stop the plague, not by finding a cure to the disease itself, but by releasing a genetically-modified mosquito that will disrupt the transmission of the virus by making its carriers incapable of reproduction, Or is that really their agenda at all?

The Bite is a film that, in truth, might have been better suited to the international section of Short Cuts than Wavelengths. Marques is indeed a talented filmmaker with a languid, atmospheric style that is still under construction. He achieves some complex tonal structures in his sound design, creating more continuity than one might expect between the laboratory space and the mosquito-tented countryside where three lovers share a home environment. And the film is refreshingly nonchalant in its depiction of queer sexuality and trans bodies.

Nevertheless, The Bite feels a bit truncated, like a demonstration of ideas that might operate more satisfactorily at feature length. With its Apichatpong-like approach to spatial relations and an ambiance reminiscent of João Pedro Rodrigues, The Bite clearly shows that its maker is onto something. But what we're seeing are just early symptoms of a syndrome that is still in the process of metastasizing.