Jornal da Mostra
Carlos Alberto Riccelli and Malu Mader in ‘Brasília 18%’
Nº 405 > 29ª Mostra > 12/04/2006
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Edição:
Renata de Almeida e Leon Cakoff
Edição:
Renata de Almeida e Leon Cakoff
Academician Nelson Pereira dos Santos breaks the silence of the intellectuals with ‘Brasília 18%’
Master Nelson Pereira dos Santos was recently elected a member of the Brazilian Academy of Literature (ABL). He is the first film maker to be part of this academic brotherhood that over the last years was marred by the inclusion of writers of questionable worth. Nelson Pereira dos Santos is, in my view, the author of the most important film in all of the history of Brazilian cinema - "Vidas Secas", 1963, based on the novel by Graciliano Ramos, and a classic in Brazilian literature. Nelson Pereira dos Santos drew twice as much attention now as an `Immortal`, his academic title, when he disclosed the contents of his new film "Brasília 18%". With his film on political corruption in the capital of the country, academician Nelson Pereira dos Santos has broken the all-pervading silence of the intellectuals in Brazil.Better late than never. To further complicate the national dismay in face of scandalous corruption, in a federal government packed with agitators bearing the flag of the Labor Party, is the stolid acquiescent silence of the intellectuals, as always in sympathy with the red mirages to the left of their horizons. "Brasília 18%" is the first Brazilian film to touch on this institutional open, bleeding, institutional wound. In the sum total of his film career, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, as a whole, comes off more as literary than aesthetic. This more than justifies his admittance to the ABL. No comparisons, therefore, with "Terra em Transe", the film by Glauber Rocha, another political landmark in Brazilian cinema, of 1967, and that has just been restored and released as a DVD.
"Terra em Transe" builds a pessimistic allegory on corruption. Nelson Pereira does not broach facts today directly. He gives the names of writers and artists to politicians and corrupt characters - his only poetic license, but hides nothing. Beautiful Brasília is ugly, with no charm, and dry, with only 18% humidity in the air. Nelson Pereira`s inspiration came from a different age of corruption, 1993, known as "the scandal of the budget dwarfs". A gang of congressmen and government employees manipulated the budgets of the Federal government, involving third parties outsourced to the government, great construction companies privileged with millionaire public works, that set aside commissions equally in the millions for the corrupt (or the corrupters?).
Similarities with the present ethical, moral, institutional crisis today are so many that the characters in "Brasília 18%" seem comfortable to wear any cap that fits.
No matter the degree of corruption, Nelson Pereira does not allow complacency for any of the characters, with degrees of involvement that invariably raise the temperature to a maximum of 100%. And we come to the end of the film appalled at the impossibility of redemption. The leap from "Terra em Transe" to "Brasília 18%" is revolting for its suggestion of corruption not only as cyclic, but endemic. And what can be said of a film now a symbol of a breakthrough of the shameful silence of the said intellectuals...
More infos in www.brasilia18.com.br
Translation into English: Clare Elizabeth Charity ( clarecharity@uol.com.br )
