Pindorama

In the Sixteenth Century, in Brazil, the founder of Pindorama realizes that nobody works in the anarchic village. When the king arrives in town, there is a fight for power among the governor and politicians while the alienated people composed of Caucasians, Blacks, Indians and half-breeds follow their leaders without any political awareness.

In 1970, the Brazilian society lived in a dictatorship and the Brazilian cinema was under the movement called "Cinema Novo" ("New Cinema"), influenced by the Italian Neo-Realism and the French "Nouvelle Vague". This cinema style opposed to the traditional clichés of the industry and had the concern to show a realistic Brazil, with slums, misery, drought, hunger, instead of the fairytale stories adopted by Hollywood. The great filmmaker Arnaldo Jabor in the beginning of career made his first feature visibly influenced by Glauber Rocha, considered by many as the best Brazilian director ever, and certainly trying to lure the censorship. The intention is to describe the origins of the Brazilian contemporary problems in a fictional tale in the Sixteenth Century. Unfortunately this expensive movie (for Brazilian standards – the costs was about two million dollars) financed by Columbia Pictures never works, and the result is a messy and hermetic allegory that I believe neither Jabor has understood the result. Sorry, Jabor, I am a big fan of your work, but the unintelligible "Pindorama" is awful in spite of your good intention. However, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" (or in Portuguese, "de boas intenções, o inferno está cheio"). Last but not the least, the DVD case of Brazilian Distributor Versátil is a crap and shattered my expensive DVD. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Pindorama"