The film was adopted from the 19th century novel of the same name that was written during the height of the Brazilian Romantic period. The word Iracema is an anagram for the word `America.' Accordingly, the character Iracema represents the continent of America but as the word comes from the Tupi Indian language, she shows that to be Brazilian is to be a mix of both American and Indian culture.
The full title of the film, `Iracema, uma transa amazônica,' is a clever play on words meant to give it a double meaning. The Portuguese translates into English as `an Amazonian affair' when in English the title sounds like `Trans-Amazonian' to intentionally evoke thoughts on the highly controversial Trans-Amazonian highway. The pun in the title is appropriate because while the film chronicles the many affairs of a prostitute in the Amazon, it also discusses the varied opinions of Brazilians about the state of the Amazon at that time considering the heavy industry that was pouring in.
The story follows the downward spiral of a teenage girl who comes from the interior of the Amazon to the large industrial city of Belem to become a prostitute. Even though the film was produced during the most oppressive years of a military regime under strict censorship guidelines, the anti-progress views break through. The significance of her profession of choice reflects the opinion of many Brazilians that the country began prostituting itself to foreign interests by allowing them to come into the Amazon to strip the country of its natural wonderland in the name of progress and economic gain. Iracema is meant to be an allegorical character representing the Amazon and its downward spiral from virginal and healthy to used, corrupted and decaying. That is the path that the character Iracema travels in the film.
