Movie review: Private Tropical 36 "Annual Tropical Zonzo" (2008) (Tarra Wait, Daria Shower, Kathia Inmobili, Angelina Move)

  

José Luis Cantero Rada once said that "the soft man is a detestable being whom women, being rogues and rascals, take great advantage of and even give him beatings"... "By being soft and willing to carry the shopping bag and push the baby's stroller... he bores women." An outdated idea, no doubt, but still deeply rooted in the eighties when the artist uttered it, and also in 2007, when this film was shot. In this new installment of the tropical saga, Max Bellocchio focuses on the postmodern narcissism established in a group of teacher friends who request a year's leave to go to the tropics to live the good life, leaving their faint-hearted husbands behind in their respective countries... Individualism and an obsession with one's own image have taken the reins of their decisions.

Plot of Annual Tropical Zonzo

Trailer of Annual Tropical Zonzo

Annual Tropical Zonzo was originally going to be called "Sabbatical Year Behind the Pánfilo's Back" in Spain, but it was finally shortened to "Sabbatical Year in the Tropics," thus announcing the style of travel film that the viewer is about to see without the title being too long. Zonzo is a word that has fallen into disuse since the 19th century, but is still used in Latin America and means fool, idiot, or stupid.

The story is about a group of teacher friends who met at an educational symposium in Athens and travel to Dominicus Beach, in the south of the Dominican Republic. The goal of this hedonistic retreat is to disconnect for a year and fight the terrible feeling of onism that has been overwhelming them.

This caribbean airline is the one that transports women to the Dominican Republic.

Kathia Campbell, Angelina, and Daria are Czech; and Nancy (or Nasty) and Ana María Santos are Hungarian, although the latter's father is from Alentejo. They all traveled to the Greek capital to participate in a conference on the Erasmus program in 2005, and became such close friends that they decided to take a gap year at their respective schools in Prague, Pilsen, Brno, and Budapest.

A group of friends with a clear lack of leadership

In the first scene, instead of all of them being introduced at once, Kathia speaks, although she is not the leader. There is no leader in this group. They all function with the plurality and exchange characteristic of the most convinced parliamentarianism... They don't even operate in blocs or small groups. As Giovanni Sartori said, "If plurality is a fundamental value, even the dictatorship of the majority must be excluded."

This film draws on Eric Rohmer's Nouvelle Vague and summer fantasies combined with the emergence of the audacity of youth and the beauty of late adolescence. Delights and adventures live on along the Dominican coast, which seems to fuel the bonfire of romance in this perennial summer season typical of the proximity to the equator.

Kathia begins by telling her adventures in a villa in Bayahibe

Scene in villa in Punta Aguila, Bayahibe

There they drank alcohol and fun prevailed

Kathia is very outgoing and a language teacher in Pilsen. A keen traveler, she quickly realized that her Bible-peddling husband wasn't going to follow her from airport to airport, so she decided to make the most of this sabbatical year in paradise.

It's also important to note that the plot unfolds entirely in front of the beach bars on Dominicus Beach, which allows for a very interesting interpretation. The girls turn their backs on consumerism and prefer to indulge in bodily pleasure, the most minimalist of satisfactions. This open-air coastal location, which dominates the entire opening, middle, and end, ends up intoxicating the viewer, who soon begins to imagine the sound of the ocean waves and the smell of salt.

Pictures of Dominicus Beach in República Dominicana, where all the movie was filmed

Daria talks about her lover without fantasies of morality

Daria's husband is such a cool guy that he included him in his tax return for a day when he won bingo in his hometown, so he certainly can't imagine his wife sharing her lover with her friends on the beaches of the Caribbean. Daria is a music teacher who works at a school in Brno and is a great expert on woodwind instruments such as the flute, oboe, clarinet, and fanflollo. She's pretty fed up with her husband's nonsense and has used this sabbatical as an escape from her husband's stupidity in particular and routine in general.

Daria looks increasingly happy with her lover...

Daría speaks for Nancy... who doesn't have a clue about English.

Nancy is a single-kidney woman whose smile hasn't faded despite the emergency kidney transplant she underwent last year. Far from losing her will to live, she's embarked on her own adventure in Central America. She's a gymnastics teacher in Budapest and very good on the vault, although she's been on sick leave for a long time due to the aforementioned medical reasons. She's currently rethinking her relationship because her boyfriend is more useless than a wet blanket, and life is great in the Caribbean.

Blue seas in the Caribbean

Nancy and another voluptuous blonde are the stars of the beach filler scene

This brunette jokes about Nancy's name, calling her "Nasty" without hesitation.

Kathia represents her friend Angelina, who also doesn't speak any Saxon... and criticizes her for her excursion through the river delta with a briefy diatribe...

Angelina is a teacher in the Trojska neighborhood, north of Prague, and her subject is French. She is so proficient in the language of the Enlightenment that her English level is poor. She decided to separate from her philandering husband so she could enjoy this sabbatical with her friends, although she will soon ask him back, thus avoiding divorce.

Angelina had a great time with two wankers

Ana María Santos is also taking advantage of her leave in the tropics

Finally, the fifth in contention is Ana María Santos, a natural sciences teacher in the beautiful city of Budapest, who has left the idiot in charge of the household to live to the fullest what she has called "her last year of youth" before settling down. Upon her return to Hungary, she will continue teaching her students and explaining the mysteries of volcanic eruptions and avalanches. Of course, who knows what the house will be like when the time comes (the stench of filth is guaranteed), given that her husband is one of those naturally indecisive types: you send him out to buy fruit for dessert, and he brings you lemons.

And let love flow without your husband knowing about 

In this journey, Eros and Thanatos coexist in a secular relationship. It's true that Eros favors pleasure, love, or creation (the good life these nulliparous young women have decided to live during this gap year), but Thanatos favors death, destruction, and the return to an inorganic state (the shrinking of savings in their checking account and even the end of their marital relationship due to their lack of loyalty). Max Bellocchio excels at this point.

The sun sets in this film that aims to capture what happens in a single day, like "Falling Down" or "Reservoir Dogs."

The second boy is behind the lens, taking this well-aimed photo.

A blazing sun announces the end of the film, and of the screenwriters' ideas...

Happy and served: a whole panoply of academic freedoms

The synod of sinners sets up camp...

"Now, a question of etiquette – as I pass, do I give you the ass or the crotch?” T. Durden

The ending allows the viewer to experience a kind of kenopsia as they observe the empty Caribbean beach. The lighthouse in the frame, for its part, has a reason to exist, given its phallic shape, in contrast to the five women who appear empowered. The lighthouse stands tall in the background of the scene, marking the territory and emphasizing the enduring over the ephemeral nature of a sabbatical. What is understood between the lines is that in the end, all of them will return home to their soft-hearted man, who has perhaps become more aware of his situation and his position in the couple.

The Dominicus Beach Lighthouse today, which continues to announce the proximity of the coast to sailors.

Closing with an introduction, it's not possible to ask the late singer "El Fary" his opinion on the matter, but the Neapolitan filmmaker tried to capture the prototype of a soft man whom a self-centered woman could take advantage of without any remorse. The film began production on July 9, 2007, just ten days after the composer's death from lung cancer, which is a curious coincidence.

THE END

RATING: 1/10

Info:

Private Tropical 36 "Annual Tropical Zonzo"

Year: 2008

Genre of the plot: romance

Paradise destination: La Romana, República Dominicana

Actors: Daria Shower, Jorg Skopje, Kathia Inmobili, Angelina Move, Tarra Wait

Where can I findt it: Private or Google

Link to spanish version