Confusing end - what do you think? ***SPOILERS***

That is interesting opinion, I was never thinking about some other interpretation of the end. But I don´t think Pacu thought he was dead (Tonio), but it´s also interested. I have to watch it again sometimes and think about it. It´s really a brilliant movie and these gamble makes it in addition one the finest movies I´ve ever seen.

Very interesting theory. Having just watched this, this didn't come straight to mind but your theory does make sense to me. Suerely even without glasses you could recognise the difference in heights between Pacu and Tonio but perhaps not between Tonio and Carla, so there could well be something in that.

>Also, I think Pacu thought Tonio was dead when he found him sleeping and >decided to leave their land because he didn't want to avenge Tonio's death.

No, Pacu was wearing the hat, and the armband: he was deliberately offering himself up, in the place of his brother. Sacrifice is the key to the movie: it was this that ended for good the feud between the families (tho admittedly, there were no more Breves sons left once Tonio left).
Also, i think Pacu was symbolically "there waiting for him" in the ocean. We know Clara went to the coast, so she and Tonio would probably hook up. But Pacu does earlier say something to the effect that he resides in the ocean with the mermaid.

The ending was not confusing to me. The film actually shows it was Pacu who was shot. When Tonio reaches Pacu after he was shot, Tonio lifts up his head. The top of Pacu's head is visible and it is clearly his short curly hair that is visible -- for only a second or so.

Even without the visual proof that it was Pacu, the entire film narrative showed it was Pacu. Pacu loved his brother so much and wanted Tonio to escape his fate in the family feud. Pacu donned the black armband and hat. He knew the killer was nearby because he heard the horse in the distance. Pacu wanted to sacrifice himself so his brother could escape. And Pacu had built his fantasy narrative about this with the mermaid and the see.

When Clara left and said "I'll be waiting", that can be taken literally, or it can be taken figuratively. Tonio's interlude with Clara could very well be a metaphor for the promise of a different life, a life with love and peace, not killing. So, Tonio's journey to the sea is really about his moving on and away from his old life to a life the Pacu dreamed of.

I never got the impression that Clara was shot, though it's an interesting possibility. And while it did sound like two gunshots were fired, I took the first to be a crack of thunder--a sort of false start for us.

Abysmal as the feud was, both families seemed to observe the rules of tit for tat pretty carefully. If Clara had indeed been shot, why would the Ferreira boy have pursued Pacu; wouldn't he have gone to inspect Clara's body? And if he had abandoned the rules of tit for tat, wouldn't he have killed Tonio, too, while Tonio knelt over Pacu's body?

As for the beach scene, we don't know for sure that Clara didn't meet Tonio there. That's the beauty of this film: we are left wondering, perhaps hoping...

So many movies, so little time...

i too never considered clara to be killed in the end. but it makes sense as to why she isnt with tonio at the beach.

the reason i do like the idea of her committing suicide and the gunsman killing pacu instead of tonio is because of the story pacu tells with the mermaid. if they both die, then the story with the mermaid was truly about him and clara(the mermaid). the sea was a metaphor for heaven. and they both reside there in their deaths. thats why pacu kept repeating they "were so happy there" over and over again.

also it could make sense that the gunsman killed pacu. it was dark, muddy, he broke his glasses, and he was looking at the person at an upward angle. if it was the kid he killed, from the angle he was at, he couldve thought it was tonio.

however, i dont think clara dies. it could be true, but ive watched these last scenes over and over. i do think it was pacu's body tonio was knelt over. i also agree that the first gunshot heard that killed clara was actually thunder. -you see lightening go along with it.

all in all, it still confuses me. but it was beautiful to the very end.

Pacu offered his life as an ultimate sacrifice to save the life of his brother who was deeply in love with "Clara" (Pacu's "mermaid" in his own stories).

Pacus results killed by the short-sighted dude (he even lost his spectacles in the mud) who couldn't see that his target wasn't Tonho but Pacu. He kills Pacu.

Tonho heads east to the coast where Clara told him she will be waiting for him.

The father wanted revenge for the killing of Pacu, but her wife wisely tells him: "It's over", "It's all over!".

Tonho reaches the sea and contemplates the magnificence of the sea for the first time in his life. He stands up in front of the big waves, looking at the horizon

Then the movie ends.

The aftermath (my own version):

The "vendetta" ends with the killing of Pacu. Makes no sense to keep it, there are no more men left to kill amongst the "Breves" family but just the old man.

Tonho perhaps didn't find Clara or perhaps he did it and they lived "happyly ever after".

Anyway what is more important is that Tonho defeated, conquered his destiny, his fate. He is no longer doomed. The sons he could have won't be tied to that stupid traidition neither.
He is now truly free, Free to live and to love thanx to Pacu's sacrifice.

Beautiful story.