Sertânia

My first film of Brazilian filmmaker Geraldo Sarno--his fourth and final feature film made at age 79. He died at age of 83, some 4 years later.

Sarno's film is refreshingly different. Shot in black-and-white with handheld cameras, which capture the humans and the flora of north-eastern Brazil, the economic disparity, the strong religious fervor of the people, and the civil insurrection. Thus far, the film could resemble the works of Brazilian directors Ruy Guerra (The Guns) and Nelson Pereira dos Santos (Vedas Secas a.k.a. Barren Lives) made decades earlier. It also reminds you of some early Cuban films.

Then how is it "refreshingly different"? Sarno's film uses near death scenarios to traverse into the future religious "purgatory" where the main character Antao Gaviao meets his dead mother, tries no meet his dead father and does meet other important people in his life, now dead. Here, it resembles Konchalovsky's award-winning film "Paradise."

Sarno's film breaks into the fifth dimension for the viewership midway in the film showing a film crew shooting the main actors in the film (as they appear in the very film the viewer is watching) complete with tripods, cameras and reflectors. Renowned directors Kiarostami and Almodovar have done this as a postscript in their films; Sarno chose to do it mid-script!

Finally, the film belongs equally to the original writer/director Sarno, cinematographers Tuna Mayer and Miguel Vassy and the talented music composer Lindenbergue Cardoso.

The last film by Gerlado Sarno (I am seriously upset not having known him before his death) is pure art. While certainly not attracting average spectator, with slow pace, lack of linearity, and a black and white cinematography that seems to have been made six decades earlier, it is no less than amazing: it has possibly the most beautiful cinematography ever in Brazilian cinema, and the soundtrack is awesome and combines perfectly with images. The poetry of the images of Northeastern culture and religion, the blurred image when Antão is hurt and there is a fantastic transition to his memories, wide-angle lens under sunlight, the fast vintage industrial clipping of footage of the big city, the scenes that remind catholic iconography (saints with hallos, baroque Jesus... and obviously The Last Supper!)... nothing is ordinary. The life story of Antão is much more than the story of an individual: it is the whole Brazilian Northeastern hinterland, the Cangaço (historic local banditism), and the lives of million who have harsh lives and eventually migrate to Southeastern big cities.