Review
“I’m not misshapen, I’m just out of shape”, the unstoppable life of Matías Fernández Burzaco
Malena Pastoriza
Matías opens the door to his home and shares with the BBC team his daily life as a writer, rapper, actor, son and friend. For him, he says, life is an endless film.
“Out of shape” is a 28-minute documentary that portrays the life of Argentine artist Matías Fernández Burzaco. Filmed in 2021, it was released in July 2023 and is available on the BBC News Mundo Youtube portal.
The short film immediately disrupts the expectations of the documentary genre, avoiding the usual fixed camera pointing at the subject and saying “Hi, I’m Matías, I’m 25 years old and I have fibromatosis”. Instead, the first scene, a moving close-up that focuses on a lock of pink hair, patches of skin, moles, nodules, an eye that opens, is accompanied by a voice-over, played by Matías, reading passages from his first book, the chronicle Formas propias. Diario de un cuerpo en guerra (Tusquets, 2021). The gaze on the body is artistic, poetic. The words help to give meaning to these images, from the most intimate experience of a body “out of shape”.
Then we, the audience, become silent witnesses of Matías’ everyday life. From the moment he wakes up in his room in his mother’s house, connected to the breathing machine, the documentary bears witness to Matías’ unstoppable life: We attend a rap rehearsal in his room, we follow him on a trip to the nearby bakery with a friend, we witness an interview in a bookstore about his latest published book, a car ride with his father, a meeting with friends playing a game of football on the Playstation, his first show as a rapper in front of 800 people, and finally a weekend trip to Reta, near the sea, with his mother. “I move across the hood like a centaur. I can’t stop, I won’t stop”, he states.
The value of caring relationships
“Out of shape” is not a portrait of Matías, but a glimpse of life from his perspective. It shows what is most important to him: his art and, above all, his loved ones. That is why the script of the short film recreates, in each of the scenes, the spontaneous, everyday conversations that Matías has with his mother, his father, his friends, his producers and his fans. It is an effective strategy that allows us, as viewers, to get to know Matías and his vision of the world. But above all, it encourages us to reflect on the importance and power of friendship and reciprocity in imagining a society where diversity is embraced in a more inclusive way.
“The wonderful and important thing about this work”, Matías admitted on his Instagram account when the documentary was released, “will never be me, but all the beautiful things that surround me, my friends, my parents, they are the real artists, artists of friendship, artists of love”.
Live and laugh, laugh to live
Far from being solemn, the documentary’s emphasis on letting the audience overhear different everyday conversations also gives an insight into the crucial role that humour plays in Matías’ life. Irony, sarcasm and even mockery fill the script every time he and his loved ones talk about the expectations society places on the life of a disabled artist. “I could pretend I’m thrilled, because they told me I’ll be cured tomorrow”, Matías ironically suggests to a friend while discussing the upcoming interview at the bookstore, and then they both burst out laughing. Humour makes social stigma and the inevitable obstacles of daily life lighter, but also more poetic: rhymes, lyrics and rhetorical turns flow spontaneously from Matías’ mind. Playing with language is also a way of living with humour.
Countering stereotypes
Matías Fernández Burzaco is unique. He is so because he has managed to resignify the singularity that has accompanied him since birth, as one of the 60 cases of Hyaline Fibromatosis Syndrome in the world, with a poetic voice that is not silent, not condescending and not politically correct. He does not want to be pitied, nor does he want to be taken as a good person just because he uses a wheelchair, nor does he want to be applauded as an example of life. He wants the world to know him for his work. His voice is reaching out, and this documentary is just a first step on that journey.