Brazil Unfiltered: 'Cabra Marcado Para Morrer'
Line up: Eduardo Coutinho | 1984 | Brazil | 119’ | EN subtitles

Brazil Unfiltered comes back from 1 to 31 October with a special curation of documentary films to contextualise the presidential elections taking place in Brazil this month. Centred around territorial struggles and the frontlines of resistance, the programme starts with a masterpiece from the late Eduardo Coutinho, followed by a sequence of 3 films set in the Amazon and a closure event + screening about climate resilience and ecological farming.
 

Listed by the Brazilian Academy as one of the 5 best Brazilian films of all time, Cabra Marcado Para Morrer (Man Marked for Death, 20 Years Later) is a sort of meta-film, with its production interrupted by twenty years of brutal military dictatorship. The film was originally conceived as a fiction based on the true story of João Pedro Teixeira, a peasant leader executed in 1962 by large landowners in rural Pernambuco. His wife, Elizabeth, was to play herself, alongside other villagers who also acted in the film. During shooting in April 1964, the set was stormed by the military, who arrested many crew members and confiscated most of the materials. Twenty years later, the filmmaker returned to the location to meet the survivors, including Elizabeth, and document what had since happened to them and their families. The documentary stands as a powerful testimony to a dark period in Brazilian contemporary history that should never be repeated.