Macunaíma

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Note of intent

Macunaíma will bring social and urgent issues combined with a fantastic narrative in a very particular way to tell a tale about identity dilemmas not only from Brazil but from the world we are living in where the emergence of a new fascism is threatening everything I believe in. Mario de Andrade’s book has something I think we need more and more of in the dangerous times we are living : a suggestion to experience art that makes us feel that we can always be different, are always undergoing transformation and never want to be “pure”. Indigenous cultures will save the Earth.

Synopsis

Macunaima is the indigenous anti-hero of a legend,, protector of his tribe, born in the north of Brazil, a kind of misfit God with the power to transform his body and face and become white, black, indigenous, man or woman, as he wishes. A 21st century reinterpretation of the 1920-ies avant-garde book of the same name, a metaphor about Brazilian miscegenation culture and its dilemas – mixing indigenous Amazon myths with a critical view of the country’s current reality. The film follows Macunaíma’s life from his childhood till his death, showing how today’s conflicts between indigenous groups in Amazon with the big mining companies from Brazil and Europe are at the center of everything we will have to face in Brazil’s next environmental and cultural crisis. Macunaíma, the anti-hero of his people, is the magic incarnation of the spirit of transformation and creativity of the Brazilian culture.

Visual concept

This fantastic fable mixing indigenous legends and realism, will be shot in real locations in two Amazon states, mainly using indigenous actors and actresses form different tribes and cultural groups. It will combine the fantastic realism of my previous films with the tropicalism of Joaquim Pedro’s (Cinema Novo master) work, and the anthropological narrative created with Hermano Vianna, one of the most important Brazilian anthropologists, as well as indigenous artists like Zahy Guajajara, actress, poet and spiritual leader of her tribe.