At a summer camp in 2007, João meets Ivo. We Were Just Brats is a possible narrative of a queer teenager who finds, in the dormitory and in the hip-hop and pop music of his world, a space that oscillates between self-discovery and punitive surveillance.
At a summer camp where everyone seems a little too close for comfort, some unforgettable encounters take place. The film takes place in the summer, in the early 2000s, and amid rows of beds, stifling nights, and music listened to in secret, an intimacy grows, made up of small gestures and questions that hang in the air: “What are you listening to?”, the song itself is relatively unimportant, “Can I listen with you?” There are feelings that fit into a shared earbud, a touch, a tender and lingering embrace. But there are also desires that learn early on to hide, shaped by fear, vigilance, and the idea that certain things must not be spoken. Caught between the desire to get closer and the fear of being seen, a young man discovers that growing up also means navigating the space between what one feels and what one is allowed to feel. Summer romances are never easy, but some are harder than others. (Margarida Moz)
