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Macunaima(Macunaíma)

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Brazil · 1969
1h 50m
Director Joaquim Pedro de Andrade
Starring Grande Otelo, Paulo José, Milton Gonçalves, Rodolfo Arena
Genre Comedy, Fantasy

Born a fully grown black man in a village in the Brazilian jungle, Macunaíma later magically transforms into a white man before making an adventure-filled trip to the city of São Paulo. After robbing a ruthless industrialist, Macunaíma returns to his village, where he finds his newly acquired knowledge and possessions of little use.

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What are people saying?

Nina Gallagher Profile picture for Nina Gallagher

Macunaíma is an interesting example of Cinema Novo. While it calls attention to the realistic struggles, social racial, and geopolitics of Brazil, it does so in an interesting and fantastical or fable like way. Macunaíma is not nearly as rooted in reality as films in the Cinema Novo movement that predicated it, but the distance between reality and the story of Macunaíma seems to allow the director to directly critique the state of Brazilian politics and the military coupe with little censorship. It is interesting to see how vastly the style of a movement and a director’s style can change within the span of a decade like it dies with Joaquim Pedro de Andrade and his films.

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