guisreis

The film depicts violent Brazilian Northeast a little after the proclamation of the Republic, and may be considered as a Nordestern (Western movie with Brazilian Northwestern hinterland as setting). Three groups, all of them viciously violent and merciless, fight each other: the "volante" police (favouring equaly cruel landowners and politicians), the "cangaceiro" bandits, and the horde of religious fanatics controled by a messianic preacher "beato". The main characters are nice. José Mojica Marins has a great presence as Penances Joe, a character that is so different and similar at once to his iconic Coffin Joe. Penances Joe was obviously created having Antônio Conselheiro as inspiration. Indeed, it is interesting that the story merges the two most paradigmatic social phenomena of Brazilian Northeast between late XIXth century and mid-XXth century: War of Canudos (and the popular preachers known as "beatos") and the banditism known as "cangaço" (which actually existed before the Republic, but had it pinnacle when Lampião was the main leader in the 1920s and 1930s). Maurício do Valle, famous for portraying Antônio das Mortes in two films by Glauber Rocha, embodies once more a huge cangaceiro, here in a romance with the daughter of the powerful local landowner, characters played by Anik Malvil and great Jofre Soares. Sérgio Hingst also has a remarkable performance in the role of Peter Bullet, the deffinitely unpraiseworthy commander of the "volante" police. The film is nice, but could have been better if it were more careful with the edition, which turned it confusing sometimes and also with a disorganized sequence of events. Cinematography, however, had some very good moments, although not all the time.

Academy awards winner documentary, a close documentation from inside of a hateful coward aggression by authoritarian and supremacist state of Israel. Anyone who is not complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people will feel very outraged by watching the scenes of criminal violence and destruction (besides robbery and even murder) by Israeli Army and their allies, the racist invaders responsible for Zionist ilegal settlements in occupied Palestine. And how amazing is the brave resistance of people in Masafar Yatta! Congratulations for the skilked debuting filmmakers and collective of activists, composed by two Palestinians (Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal) and two Israeli (Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor), not engaged in jingoistic fanaticism but in defendending what is the fair and correct.

One more great film by Karen Shakhnazarov, this is a coming-of-age movie during times when Western cultural and consumption influences were overcoming Soviet attempt to block them (and repress smuggling of those products). Jeans and jackets, English rock n'roll, French cinema, all that attracted youth, instead of those classes on the history of the Communist Party or the anti-(USA)imperialism propaganda. The relationship of the three friends is also interesting, with their mix of cooperation and rivalry, besides womanizer and brawler typical behviour. That juvenile lack of responsibility and experimentation, in their case, merged with a deep change in Soviet society as a whole, brilliantly portrayed in the movie (including with a perfect period art direction). The ending demarcates the passage to adulthood, and the future could never be foreseen by those partying teenagers.