January 14 2009, Singapore The Cinematheque at the National Museum of Singapore inaugurated film festivities for 2009 with the screening of Macunaima - the opening film for the World Cinema Series.

Joaquim Pedro de Andrade’s Macunaima marks a watershed in Brazilian filmmaking. The film is grotesque and absurdly outrageous. But don’t let that fool you. What it is, unmistakably, is an allegorical representation of Brazilian life and politics in the sixties.

To someone unfamiliar with Brazil in that era (1945-1970) this film is nothing but a vacuous comedy with superior performances that causes the stomach to strain with laughter. The real objective of the film lies–as the expression goes–between the lines.

Directed by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, the film opens in the Brazilian jungle, where an old white woman gives birth to a fully-grown black baby. Seconds after his birth he’s christened Macunaima by his mother, who believes a name starting with ‘MA’ brings misfortune.

For the first six years, Macunaima never wants to speak. When he finally begins, he never wants to stop. After his mother’s death, Macunaima and his brothers Jigue (a negro) and Manape (a whiteman) leave the jungle to move to the city. En route they discover a natural spring that turns our protagonist into a handsome, young Caucasian male with blonde hair. Unfortunately for his black brother Jigue the spring goes dry just before he could bathe in it, shattering his hopes of turning white.

In the city, the brothers run into Ci, a solo guerrilla who is introduced fighting Brazil’s then military regime. Macunaima and Ci develop a sexual relationship, which later turns conjugal. He moves in with Ci deserting his two brothers. Soon Ci gives birth to a son - a fully-grown black baby (again played by the original black Macunaima). In the very next scene, a time bomb that Ci wants to plant in the heart of the city misfires killing both Ci and Macunaima Jr.

Depressed over the loss of his only true love, Macunaima reunites with his brothers. Together they device a plan to recover a certain lucky stone (the muraquita) that once belonged to Ci. The stone now hangs around the neck of Pietro Pietra, an industrialist who publicly boasts of the muraquita’s power and the fortune it brought him since its discovery. Every time they come close to the muraquita, their amusing plans are botched, leaving Macunaima in misfortune, just like his mother wanted him to be.

In the end, he manages to retrieve the lucky stone, but chooses to move back into the jungle, far away from the machines and the men of the city, but taking with him certain luxuries - a television, an electric guitar, an air conditioner and other material comforts.

True, it sounds farcical and plays out surrealistically on the screen like a sequence of dreams. But Joaquim Pedro de Andrade strives here - employing allegories - to tell a political story; one that brings to light the plight of the common man in Brazil during the late-60s. Here’s brushing you up on some political history: 1964 was the year of the Brazilian coup d’état - the year the nation went into a military period. In 1968, with the Institutional Act No. 5, Brazil bombarded its own people, taking away much of citizens’ common rights and dissolving the Congress. The Act also increased the dictatorial power of the President tremendously.

In the cinematic history of Brazil, this was the period of Cinema Novo (1950s and 1960s). Capturing the Cinema Novo movement in a single phrase was “Uma câmera na mão e uma idéia na cabeça“, which translates to “a camera in the hand and an idea in the head“. Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, together with other Brazilian filmmakers such as Carlos Diegues and Glauber Rocha were popular names of the Cinema Novo. From 1960-1964, filmmakers sought to expose the reality of life in the country’s Northeast touching on poverty and social inequities. But post-1964, these filmmakers took it on themselves to bring to light the political situation in Brazil, heavily commenting on corruption and capitalism. Macunaima, one of the most important such films hid the message so cleverly while still providing comic relief to the nation’s audience.

The play on racism is obvious. Macunaima is born black to a Caucasian mother, who had also mothered two other sons - one black and one white - previously. To keep the young Macunaima busy, Soffara, Jigue’s first wife, takes him to play and gives him a ‘magic cigarette’. The drug mysteriously turns him white and boosts his sex appeal, but only as long as the effect lasts. When he turns white during the hallucination period, Soffara can’t hold herself back and the two begin a secret affair. Soffara is the first of the three wives of Jigue’s who’re caught copulating with the ‘white Macunaima’ throughout the film. On their way to the city, a magic fountain again turns Macunaima white, this time permanently. As for the unfortunate Jigue, the fountain dries up before he can reach it, only turning his palms white, playing on an old, popular legend in Brazil about the coloring of the black man.

Ci, who Macunaima encounters in the city represents the uprise of the many revolting guerrillas in Brazil in the sixties. Though solo, Ci was ruthless and obliterated anything that came her way. She was always preoccupied with rebellion.

And Pietro Pietra, the fat and greedy industrialist who comes into possession of the muraquita is clearly a figure of capitalism. Pietro, who speaks with an Italian accent represents the many industrials who profited from the developing Brazil that was abundant with resources. The muraquita itself was a symbol of Brazil, its people and everything they stood for. Again allegorically representing the fight put up by the Brazilian man, Macunaima tries very hard to steal the stone back from him, but the obstacles in his way are too many.

When he finally does get hold of the muraquita, Macunaima dwells in luxury and material comfort but soon grows tired of the the urban city life. He returns to the jungle, but this time, having had enough of his lies and selfishness his brothers and his new lady love Princess desert him, leaving him to fend for himself. He finds comfort in a talking parrot to whom he recites the story of his life. Then, calling an end to his adventures is a sequence where Macunaima comes across a lovely nymph in the water and goes diving behind her. But this is no ordinary seductress. After Macunaima takes the dive, he is sucked into the water and his bloody shirt rises to the surface, taking us back to the narration that the film began with - a story of a Brazilian consumed by Brazil.

How’s that for a political statement?

NEXT ON CINEMATHEQUE’S WORLD CINEMA SERIES:

The next four films at the National Museum of Singapore is a presentation of four important works from British director Terrence Davies. If you live around the area or know someone who might be interested, do spread the word. For tickets and venue click here.

27 February 2009
The Terence Davies Trilogy

28 February 2009
Distant Voices, Still Lives
The Long Day Closes

1 March 2009
Of Time and the City