MACUNAÍMA

Macunaíma is an imaginary character coming out of the legends of the Indians and out of popular mythology. His existence is marked with extraordinary episodes. He moves easily through the present and the past, in the city and in the country, in the Amazon forests and in the south of the country, as well as between heaven and earth. He lives napping due to his ancestral laziness. However, at the same time he goes to war against the giants and against the contradictions of the social order. When he is born, he is both bIack and already an adult. All of a sudden he becomes white and racist. He is scentimental and cynical, naïve and sly, selfish and generous. He is a man without character, without coherence. He falls in Iove with other people's wives and girIfriends, but he is crazy about only Ci and about all the young women thal look like lier. He cannot live without his magic amulet that defends him in dire stralts and this amulet has ended up in the hands of the giants.

"This is an Oswaldian rereading (in the sense of Oswaldo de Andrade) of Mário de Andrade's work. This definition has been taken up by the director himself in his splendid elegy to vulgarity. The director ends up melting into his rancid feijoada ingredients like the dried meat of preconceptions, the sausages of McCarthyism, and the lard of tropicalism while seasoning everything with the most varied kinds of condiments." (Alex Viany)

"Brazil devours the Brazilians. Macunaíma is the story of a Brazilian devoured by Brazil." (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade)

Director and screenplay: Joaquirn Pedro de Andrade.
Plot: dal romanzo omonimo di Mário de Andrade.
Director of photography: Guido Cosulich, Afonso Beato.
Scenografia e costumi: Anísio Medeiros.
Editor: Eduardo Escorel.
Music: Mário de Andrade, Villa-Lobos, Oreste Barbosa.
Cast and characters: Grande Otelo (Macunaíma), Paulo José, Dina Sfat, Jardel Filho, Milton Gonçalves, Rodolfo Arana, Joana Fomm, Maria do Rosário, Zézé Macedo, Wilza Carla, Maria Lúcia DahI, Hugo Carvana.
Production company: Filmes do Sêrro, Grupo Filmes, Condor Filmes.