The Last Bath is a contemplative exploration of devotion, temptation, guilt and doubt that gently grips the audience through its powerful performances, delicate direction and atmospheric cinematography.
Devotion takes many forms, from love and affection to commitment, loyalty, and spiritual service. But devotion is never without doubt and questioning. Those doubts can take us by surprise, or they can fester over time, growing larger the more we try to repress them. In his debut feature, director David Bonneville places devotion, doubt, and internal questioning centre stage in The Last Bath, as Sister Josefina (Anabela Moreira) finds her quiet convent life thrown into uncertainty after the death of her father, the guardian of her 15-year-old nephew Alexandre (Martim Canavarro).
Alexandre’s mother, Josefina’s sister, long ago abandoned her son due to her addiction, selfishness and chaotic lifestyle. Josefina also stayed away because of her life at the convent, and the possibility of returning to her childhood rural home had never truly crossed her mind until now. But Alexandre is too young to be left alone, and as usual his mother is nowhere to be found. So Josefina reluctantly heads home, giving up her quiet life for a teenage boy she doesn’t really know and a house heavy with memories.
When she arrives, she finds Alexandre unclean, dishevelled, and moody. He lies in bed, refusing to eat or drink and walks barefoot in the surrounding fields, leading to cuts and sores. The first birth in the village for years, and a child who had faced the emotional turbulence of an uninterested mother, Alexandre was protected by Josefina’s father and denied the freedom to become a young man. In many ways, despite his muscular frame and manly appearance, he is stuck at eleven or twelve when compared to many of the kids around him. Josefina also treats him as such, nurturing him, caring for him, and bathing him to rid him of dirt and lice.
These baths are more than an act of cleanliness; they speak of rebirth, faith, devotion, and the washing away of sin through spiritual purification. Slowly, the boy becomes a part of Josefina’s devotion but also a challenge to years of isolation and strict religious observance. As she wipes his lean body clean, repressed feelings rise to the surface. Then, when Alexandre’s mother returns due to the possible money in her father’s will, Josefina begins to doubt her commitment to return to the convent; her life has changed, and Alexandre has stirred a pot of long-simmering doubts and questions that are about to boil over during a night of revelation, regret and rebirth.
Josefina knows her nephew has stirred long-repressed feelings attached to her sexuality and her attraction to the male physical form. Yet through a masterful performance from Moreira and an equally impressive performance from Canavarro, The Last Bath skirts deep waters in its psychological, spiritual, and sexual discussions without plunging into them. We are offered a nuanced portrait of devotion suddenly wrapped in doubt, and repressed feelings suddenly awakened with uncertain, unknowable results. David Bonneville, who co-wrote The Last Bath with Diego Rocha, lets these themes breathe throughout the one-hour-and-thirty-minute runtime, never offering quick and easy solutions or scandalous scenes designed purely to elicit an intense reaction from the audience.
It took a long time for The Last Bath to arrive in the United Kingdom after a festival run that began just as the pandemic hit in 2020. Now, thanks to NQV Media, the wait is over, and I can only hope Bonneville’s film gets the attention it so richly deserves on digital platforms. The Last Bath is a contemplative exploration of devotion, temptation, guilt and doubt that gently grips the audience through its powerful performances, delicate direction and atmospheric cinematography.
The Last Bath is available on digital platforms from September 14.
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