/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-BRAZIL: God Stars in Satire of a Country’s Ills

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 18 2003 (IPS) - God is Brazilian. He laughingly laments the mistakes made by the humans he created, he hates performing miracles because it requires "too much effort", and he is looking for a saint to stand in for him while he takes a vacation.

Contradictions accumulate through the characters and situations in "Deus é Brasileiro" (God Is Brazilian), the new film by director Carlos Diegues, better known in this country as Cacá.

It is the fifteenth feature-length work by this 62-year-old filmmaker, one of the few remaining from the "cinema novo" movement of the 1960s who still puts out box office hits.

Based on the tale "O santo que nao acreditava em Deus" (The Saint Who Did Not Believe in God), by Joao Ubando Ribeiro, the plot follows God’s visit to Brazil in search of Quincas das Mulas, who the all-powerful wants to make into a saint to take over the holy duties while he goes on vacation.

But this God, in the image of man and played by the grey-haired actor Antonio Fagundes, famed for his roles in Brazilian soap operas, has no idea where to find Quincas.

He takes clues from television news, newspaper articles and other fragments of information he happens upon.

God’s search serves as a pretext to reveal the insides of Brazil, as Cacá Diegues did in his 1979 film "Bye Bye Brazil". Both are road movies, a formula the director says he enjoys because it gives him an opportunity to explore "the unknown country".

But "Deus é Brasileiro" turns out to be more of a superficial glance at the country’s many social problems, though ‘favelas’ (massive shanty towns), prostitution and crime make cameo appearances.

Nevertheless, the film serves as an affectionate portrait of the national imperfections and paradoxes, a comedy in which even God does not escape the reach of irony.

The route to the home of "saint" Quincas takes God and two companions through various urban and rural landscapes, and encounters with individuals who represent a contradictory culture in which the archaic and the modern meld together.

There is the ageing hired assassin, now living in decadence, who refuses to commit any more murders to survive. Because his name is Quinca, God confuses him for the saint he seeks. The killer is greatly disappointed when he realises that the divine one has not come to hire him for a "job".

In his wanderings through northern and northeastern Brazil, the country’s poorest regions, God is accompanied by a tyre repairman, a talkative youth who criticises and comments on God’s contradictions, while he himself is fleeing the death threats of a loan shark who he owes money.

"You’re more sincere when you lie," the young man tells God.

The two are joined by a young woman, Madá (representing the biblical prostitute Mary Magdalene), who is attempting to migrate to Sao Paulo, following in the footsteps of millions of poor northeasterners in search of a better future.

Although Madá does not realise who God really is, she figures he is the right one to guide her to her dream of prosperity.

The search finally comes to an end. Quincas if found amidst an indigenous community whose lands were invaded by ranchers in the northern state of Tocantins, bordering the Amazon region.

But it turns out that Quincas, who has given of himself for many communities in need, is an atheist, and he proclaims it at the top of his voice. He is unconvinced by God’s show of power, including changing day to night in seconds and altering the exuberant natural surroundings.

Quincas holds to his convictions even when he incurs the wrath of God, who nearly drowns the mortal in a river.

God gives up on his "saint" and his vacation, which he had hoped to spend watching the galaxies and explosions of stars. He returns to the site where he arrived on Earth, and disappears.

Diegues’s film earned accolades from critics who see it as praise of Brazilian characteristics, such as the ability to incorporate the new, while maintaining the old and traditional aspects of culture.

In spite of Brazil’s misery and social problems, the film expresses hope for the future, coinciding with the political moment in which the country is looking forward with the new government of former metalworker Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

And the film is a box-office success, drawing 206,000 people in its first three days, for total revenues of 340,000 dollars, or a sixth of the "God Is Brazilian" production budget.