At a time when power brokers uncomfortably close to home are musing aloud about the merits of authoritarianism, filmmaker Walter Salles is here to remind us of Brazil’s experience of the military dictatorship in the early 1970s. Initially, life seems relatively normal in the happy upper middle class household of former congressman Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello). His main concern is that his teenage daughters steer clear of politics. So, wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres) is bewildered when her husband is picked up by armed men one morning. It is the beginning of a long, dark nightmare for her and the family.
Salles (Central Station; Motorcycle Diaries; On the Road) hasn’t made a film for more than a decade, and it’s clear that the 2015 memoir by Paiva’s son, Marcelo, resonated with him deeply. He was 15 in 1971, when the bulk of the film is set, and the period detail feels completely lived in and authentic. Likewise the consuming energies of a loving family. But the second half of the movie belongs to Fernanda Torres, magnificent as the matriarch who must shoulder the weight of her husband’s disappearance.
Best Screenplay: Venezia 81, Venice 2024
Community Partner
Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello, Fernanda Montenegro
Brazil/France
2024
In Portuguese with English subtitles
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Guilherme Terra, Thierry de Clermont-Tonnerre, Lourenço Sant’anna, Renata Brandão, Juliana Capelini, David Taghioff, Masha Magonova
Producer
Rodrigo Teixeira, Maria Carlota Bruno, Martine De Clermont-Tonnerre
Screenwriter
Murilo Hauser, Heitor Lorega
Cinematography
Adrian Teijido
Editor
Alfonso Goncalves
Production Design
Carlos Conti
Original Music
Warren Ellis
Walter Salles
Walter Salles is a renowned Brazilian director known for his work in both documentaries and fiction. His films often explore themes of travel and identity. Central do Brasil (1998) earned him the Golden Bear at Berlin, Best Screenplay at Sundance, and Best Foreign Film awards at the British Academy Awards and Golden Globes, among fifty other international accolades and two Academy Award nominations. Abril Despedaçado (2001) received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. Salles also produces emerging Brazilian filmmakers’ projects.
Filmography: Central Station (1998); Behind the Sun (2001); The Motorcycle Diaries (2004); On the Road (2012); Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang (2014)
Photo by Sofia Paciullo
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