Country: Brazil
Year: 1966
Duration: 10'


At the beginning of the 1960's Brazil seemed to be headed towards a more or less democratic solution to itr very serious problems even though it was going through convulsions, vacillations, and profound contradictions. However, a military coup d'état with Fascist overtones took place in 1964 without warning. Except for some unavoidable instances, the coup proceeded in a practically bloodless manner. (Ridiculously, its authors even called it a "revolution.") This coup was in no way like the Chilean coup of 1973, which was drastically and programatically bloody from its first hours. The old war-horses of the reaction and the philo-American military - supported by the CIA - had been conspiring for years and finally they found themselves at the head of the country, almost as if they didn't expect to be there. They had the consensus of vast strata of the middle class who were tired of the chaos and inflation and scared of the usual communist bogeyman. For this reason, the dictatorship was still uncertain, indecisive, and superficial in its first phase - from 1964 to 1968. And, in fact, as its first president boasts, there were no political prisoners. Nor was there even torture, except for the usual and sporadic cases that are characteristic of normal police practice. The belt-tightening began at the end of 1968, sanctioned by the so-called Institutional Act Number 5 (or AI 5), which deprived the citizen of every right and marked the beginning of the atrocious phase of systematic torture, of serial assassination, and of terror as a method of governing.

"My film was made and normally screened on the commercial movie-theater circuit in 1966, exactly during the time of still quasi-liberal dictatorship. This film could only have been made in this period, because it would have been unthinkable before the coup." (Mario Fiorani )

Biography

film director

Mario Fiorani

Cast

& Credits

Director and screenplay: Mario Fiorani.
Director of photography: Mário Carneiro.
Music: Esther Scliar.
Cast: Luis Linhares, Glauce Rocha, Italo Rossi, Eduvaldo Vianna Filho.
Production company: Mario Fiorani.
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