The First Fallen: Review

10th February 2023

Suzano (Johnny Massaro) is a young gay man living in Brazil at the start of the eighties. He has an active sex and social life and he doesn’t realise what is just around the corner. Rose (Renata Carvalho) is a transgender woman who’s not afraid to be who she is and wears her identity with pride.

Railing against the world and its prejudices, Rose lives life out loud and be damned anybody who says she should do otherwise. However, both Suzano and Rose are about to fall ill under the AIDS virus at a time where very little was known, putting their characters are put to the test.

The First Fallen (or Os Premieros Soldados in Portugese) is a poignant and emotional story about the AIDS virus being discovered in Brazil. Showing their lives as they interact with their community, both Suzano and Rose’s stories are told while intermingling with each other. Set early on where nobody knew what to do, it tells a story of tragedy as well as strength.

However, The First Fallen is not just a story about the many people who had died due to AIDS and it isn’t meant as a way to document how it all started. Instead, it serves as a bold reminder that when the unknown strikes, people don’t seem to care.

Both Massaro and Carvalho give powerful and nuanced performances in their own ways. Rose could have been a cliched trans character fighting against the world that doesn’t understand her, but instead she is shown as someone merely who wants to exist.

As Salvano’s condition gets worse, thankfully the film does not marvel over the lengths to which Massaro went in order to portray it properly. It just shows two people trying to cling on to life with hope still in their hearts.

Using an engaging structure which brings their stories back and forth until the final act, The First Fallen shows how lives were turned upside down and taken out at a moments notice with very little care. A timely reminder that no matter what, life is precious and fleeting.

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