September 8, 2026
FILM: SALON DE BELLEZA
DIRECTED BY: NATHALIA ACEVEDO
STARRING: SAM LOUWYCK, ERWAN KEPOA
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
When Salon De Belleza begins, we are underwater, perhaps in the ocean, traveling through marine vegetation and schools of fish. It’s hard to tell when the cut occurs, but then we see a hand coming into the water. We are now inside a fish tank where food is being distributed. It’s startling but sets up the periodic invisible transitions which will be used throughout the film to bridge parts of our world. Based on a novel by Mario Bellatin, director Nathalia Acevedo creates visions of care and decay within a troubled city where the line between life and death must be balanced.
The film stars Sam Louwyck as the gay owner of a salon which is now being used for the man’s many fish aquariums and as a place to care for the sick and dying who’ve contracted what appears to be deadly virus. There is very little dialogue spoken throughout the film, rather Louwyck provides voice over narration expressing his character’s often poetic and philosophical thoughts about what is happening around him.
Through flashbacks, Acevedo provides glimpses of the man’s past when lively co-workers and customers inhabited the salon that is now filled with barely living victims on floor mattresses. We also see him with a much younger male lover in happier times. The man says he returns to the past to “rearrange things.” He seems to desire some silver lining about the life he has lived. The setting presently though is dark and dirty, a relic of its past. Later, Acevedo takes us back into the ocean through a mesmerizing shot that travels from a small hole in a wall into the sea where we see the remains of former cultures including ancient floor tiles which fish swim over and classical statues now decaying with moss. For the man, this is where life is all headed, thanks to the ever violent and evolving world we live in.
As much as he witnesses the atrocities around him, the man still cares for his fish as well as the dying new residents. When they pass, he has younger men pick them up in wheel barrows to given them a proper burial. It’s not clear what has caused the virus, except for maybe a nearby power plant which is billowing pollution into the air. The man is a sign of hope that even in the midst of darkness and destruction there can still be humanity and compassion.
It’s hard not to be impressed with the cinematography in the film. While most scenes run on the darker side, what is being captured is a beautiful world falling apart. There’s grime in the air. Even the man’s visit to a bathhouse feels dirty and decadent.
Water is also featured throughout as a visual motif serving a variety of purposes. It can be healing and something which sustains life but it can also be destructive as rain pours into the salon and fish are flushed away once their lives have ended.
The use of music and sound is also front and center throughout the film. Whether it be the rumble of sea water or the drips falling from the man’s ceiling, the sound is meticulously designed to represent water’s various forces on our planet. Much of the music is meditative, sung by what sounds like a church choir. This establishes and emphasizes the somber mood of the film. At other times, English-language songs accentuate the action, such as the line, “come wander with me,” which might be referencing the underwater fish or the wanderings of the man and every human on the planet that might have been wasting their time thinking they’re immortal.
This is a film that lays itself over viewers. It’s not a traditional narrative but a metaphorical reflection on the inevitable realities of life and death.
Salon De Belleza is having its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week.
FILM: SALON DE BELLEZA
DIRECTED BY: NATHALIA ACEVEDO
STARRING: SAM LOUWYCK, ERWAN KEPOA
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
When Salon De Belleza begins, we are underwater, perhaps in the ocean, traveling through marine vegetation and schools of fish. It’s hard to tell when the cut occurs, but then we see a hand coming into the water. We are now inside a fish tank where food is being distributed. It’s startling but sets up the periodic invisible transitions which will be used throughout the film to bridge parts of our world. Based on a novel by Mario Bellatin, director Nathalia Acevedo creates visions of care and decay within a troubled city where the line between life and death must be balanced.
The film stars Sam Louwyck as the gay owner of a salon which is now being used for the man’s many fish aquariums and as a place to care for the sick and dying who’ve contracted what appears to be deadly virus. There is very little dialogue spoken throughout the film, rather Louwyck provides voice over narration expressing his character’s often poetic and philosophical thoughts about what is happening around him.
Through flashbacks, Acevedo provides glimpses of the man’s past when lively co-workers and customers inhabited the salon that is now filled with barely living victims on floor mattresses. We also see him with a much younger male lover in happier times. The man says he returns to the past to “rearrange things.” He seems to desire some silver lining about the life he has lived. The setting presently though is dark and dirty, a relic of its past. Later, Acevedo takes us back into the ocean through a mesmerizing shot that travels from a small hole in a wall into the sea where we see the remains of former cultures including ancient floor tiles which fish swim over and classical statues now decaying with moss. For the man, this is where life is all headed, thanks to the ever violent and evolving world we live in.
As much as he witnesses the atrocities around him, the man still cares for his fish as well as the dying new residents. When they pass, he has younger men pick them up in wheel barrows to given them a proper burial. It’s not clear what has caused the virus, except for maybe a nearby power plant which is billowing pollution into the air. The man is a sign of hope that even in the midst of darkness and destruction there can still be humanity and compassion.
It’s hard not to be impressed with the cinematography in the film. While most scenes run on the darker side, what is being captured is a beautiful world falling apart. There’s grime in the air. Even the man’s visit to a bathhouse feels dirty and decadent.
Water is also featured throughout as a visual motif serving a variety of purposes. It can be healing and something which sustains life but it can also be destructive as rain pours into the salon and fish are flushed away once their lives have ended.
The use of music and sound is also front and center throughout the film. Whether it be the rumble of sea water or the drips falling from the man’s ceiling, the sound is meticulously designed to represent water’s various forces on our planet. Much of the music is meditative, sung by what sounds like a church choir. This establishes and emphasizes the somber mood of the film. At other times, English-language songs accentuate the action, such as the line, “come wander with me,” which might be referencing the underwater fish or the wanderings of the man and every human on the planet that might have been wasting their time thinking they’re immortal.
This is a film that lays itself over viewers. It’s not a traditional narrative but a metaphorical reflection on the inevitable realities of life and death.
Salon De Belleza is having its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week.