BRAZILIAN CULTURE
MONTH
7th Brazilian Film Festival
10 - 15 October 2010 / 20.30
The Shoe Factory (304 Ermou Street, Nicosia)
Entrance: Free
English Subtitles
Sunday 10 October
CARANDIRU / Dir: Hector Babenco (2003)
Carandiru is a Brazilian and Argentine film directed by Hector Babenco. It
is based on the book Estação Carandiru (Carandiru Station) by Dr. Drauzio
Varella, a physician and AIDS specialist, who is portrayed in the film by
Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos. Carandiru tells some of the stories that occurred
in Carandiru Penitentiary, which was the biggest prison in Latin America.
The story culminates with the 1992 massacre where 111 prisoners died, 102
killed by police. In 2002, one year before the release of the film, the
Carandiru Penitentiary was closed.
Monday 11 October
DOMESTICAS / Dir: Fernando Meirelles & Nando Olival (2001)
Five maids in São Paulo are observed in this episodic, impressionistic film.
The women interact with each other and have longings: Rai for a husband,
Créo for her lost daughter, Roxane for a career in modeling. Quitéria is
naive, a gull for thieves. Cida has a husband and also a lover. While each
woman gets what she wishes for, more or less, it doesn't always make things
better. As Roxane says, “No child sets out to become a maid”. But once
there, are all other doors close
Tuesday 12 October
O OUTRO LADO DA RUA / Dir: Marcos Bernstein (2004)
The amateur sleuth in Marcos Bernstein‘s feature film début O Outro Lado da
Rua (The Other Side of the Street), believes she has witnessed a murder
while spying with binoculars on a neighbor. But has she, or is it all a
figment of the imagination of a lonely, embittered older woman?This film is
well worth watching for its straightforward handling of the problems of
aging and loneliness in our ever more impersonal world. It features Brazil’s
Grand Dame of the stage and television, Fernanda Montenegro (Academy Award
nominee for Central Station), who delivers a strong performance as the
elderly woman in search of a sense of self.
Wednesday 13 October
UM PASSAPORTE HÚNGARO / Dir: Sandra Kogut (2003 / documentary)
Speaking on the telephone with the Hungarian Consulate, the filmmaker asks:
"Does someone whose grandfather is Hungarian have the right to obtain a
Hungarian passport?" The question apparently sounds strange. "Yes - It's
possible... But, why do you want a Hungarian passport?" The filmmaker asks
for the list of necessary documents, but the officer woman still doesn't
understand why she wants to become Hungarian. The idea took place on her
mind: she is going to ask for the Hungarian nationality. She didn't say a
word to anyone but she wouldn't give it up. The administrative process – the
request for a passport - is the guiding line of the film. And the filmmaker
faces essential questions: what is nationality? What's the use of a
passport? What is our heritage? How do we construct our own history and
identity?
Thursday 14 October
BIRDWATCHERS / Dir: Marco Bechis (2008)
A boat with tourists is sailing up the river through the jungle. Suddenly
they come face-to-face with Indians, naked apart from their paint, with
self-made weapons at the ready. The tourists sail on excitedly. The Indians
put on their jeans and collect their daily wages. The Guarani, one of
Brazil's oldest Indian communities, are forced to live in a reservation. A
small group of Guarani decide to leave the reservation and settle in a
traditional territory that has belonged to white men for several
generations. The clash between two conflicting cultures is conceived as a
suspense story with mystical elements. The actors are real Indians with no
actor training.
Friday 15 October
MEMÓRIAS PÓSTUMAS / Dir: André Klotzel (2001)
Memórias Póstumas (Posthumous Memories) is based upon Machado de Assis's
classic Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, which was published in 1881 as the
first "autobiography" ever written by a dead man. The narrator is a rich
dead man, who tells us about his life and times, making fun of both. In
fact, the film, like the novel, is really about the problems of telling
stories, causing the viewer to think about the nature of the fictional world
and the conventions of story-telling itself. There is a constant sense of
amusement as new characters are being introduced but then suddenly
disappear. Klotzel takes many of the literary devices and transfers them to
the screen. In addition, he looks at the parallel conventions of
story-telling in the movies and plays with them in ways that echo the
cleverness of Machado de Assis. The viewer will want to go back and read
Machado de Assis's delicious stories again, after seeing this delightful
movie.
