IRACEMA
Iracema, uma transa amazônica | Dir. Jorge Bodanzky, Orlando Senna | Brazil, West Germany | 1975 | 99 min | Brazilian Portuguese | subtitles in English, Lithuanian
July 9th, 21:30 @Deep Rivers Run Silent
Newly restored political and explicit road film Iracema was banned by the Brazilian military regime for 5 years after its release in 1975. The narrative follows young Iracema who travels with truck driver Tião along the Trans-Amazonian Highway to the depths of the Amazon rainforest. Along the way, the film starkly and directly exposes outcomes of the grandiose and optimistic development project – exploitation, and violence that spread with occupation by the regime. The Trans-Amazonian Highway, touted as the “spine of progress”, appears in the film as an open wound in the heart of the forest. In a film of historical, artistic, and social significance, navigating the boundaries between documentary and fiction, the interactions between the main actors and the non-actors, many local residents, reveal raw truths about human conditions and environmental degradation.
