Once There Was Brasilia by Adirley Queirós
MUBI, the curated and prestigious international VOD platform, has announced the hosting of a new series dedicated to the best of contemporary Brazilian cinema this summer featuring eight films made in the past three years: The Dead and the Others by João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora, Let it Burn by María Bühler, Breakwater by Cris Lyra, Good Manners by Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra, The Fever by Maya Da-Rin, Landless by Camila Freitas, Once There Was Brasilia by Adirley Queirós, Sedução da carne by Júlio Bressane, The Blue Flower of Novalis by Gustavo Vinagre and Rodrigo Carneiro.
Filmmaking in Brazil has undergone many disparate phases, from the French New Wave influenced Cinema Novo—a movement for whom film aesthetics were a political act—to the São Paulo-born underground cinemas of the late 1960s, and all the way through to more recent (Oscar favorites!) Central Station and City of God. In the wake of the country’s modern-day political turmoil, Brazil’s filmmakers have recently been producing strikingly poignant, urgent cinema.
With the aim of reflecting the eclectic nature of this recent upsurge, our selection embraces both the world of fiction and of documentary, from up-and-coming voices as well as established masters. Whether through the hypnotic clash between the indigenous and urbanized world as portrayed in The Dead and the Others, the genre-twisting nature of Good Manners, or Landless’ intimate observations of local political activism, these are all works that demonstrate how bold and tactful world cinema can be, remaining conscious of its own past yet still forward-looking.
The series starts off with the immersive, refreshing ethnographic docudrama The Dead and the Others by João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora. Touching on the crucial yet often disorienting chapter of young adolescence, this hypnotic prize-winner offers a sensory outsider’s look at the urbanized world we live in.
Let it Burn is a tender portrait of drug users residing in a hostel-turned-social housing project is a tough yet hopeful act of cinematic communion. Deeply devoted to its subjects, but also providing space to bring them closer to each other, Let It Burn absorbs great emotion, culminating in musical release.
In Breakwater, a group of friends from São Paulo go on a trip to a remote beach. While they wait for the new year’s eve, they build a safe and pleasant environment through music and friendship. They take care of themselves, they own their bodies, their sexuality, their memories and they feel free.
Set in São Paulo, Good Manners follows Clara, a lonely nurse from the outskirts of the city who is hired by mysterious and wealthy Ana to be the nanny of her soon to be born child. Against all odds, the two women develop a strong bond. But a fateful night marked by a full moon changes their plans.
The documentary film Landless features the Landless Workers Movement who fight to press the government into making land reform and settling the families encamped in an occupied land belonging to a sugarcane processing plant. While conservative forces gain more space than ever in the country, encamped people dream of self-determination.
The Afrofuturist docufiction Once There Was Brasilia, tells the story of a disgraced intergalactic agent WA4 receives a mission: to come to the Earth and kill the president Juscelino Kubitschek on the day of Brasília’s inauguration In 1959. Nevertheless, his ship is lost in time and lands in 2016 in Ceilândia—a Black suburb of Brasília—on the verge of Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment.
The Fever follows Justino, a 45-year-old member of the indigenous Desana people, is a security guard at the Manaus harbor. As his daughter prepares to study medicine in Brasilia, Justino comes down with a mysterious fever. Sedução da carne follows a delicate and tenacious writer, widowed three years ago, who engages in frequent conversations with a parrot. However, she’s always observed by a large portion of raw meat.
In The Blue Flower of Novalis, Marcelo, a dandy of about 40 years, has an unparalleled memory. Relive familiar memories in your head and have memories of your past lives. In one, it was Novalis, a German poet chasing a blue rose. And in this current life, what does Marcelo persecute?
