THIS IS
CARNIVAL!

Winter is traversed.

It is a long, cold, and dark journey... made, above all, within ourselves. It is perhaps the season in which we confront ourselves the most: with our thoughts, with our unfulfilled desires, our deepest wishes (which are supposed to be realized during summer, the season of 'madness of materialization, of haste...'), with our problems and the lack of solutions for them. Our ancestors did not fear winter because they had their eyes on Carnival. The mainstream Brazilian Carnival is nothing more than an evolution of the ritual of our ancestors... and it has transformed more into a (beautiful) spectacle than a tool with its ritualistic function (in the southern hemisphere, it even loses synchronization with the seasons). But here, in cinema, we want to show Carnival in the ethnographic and ritualistic sense: between Fat Sunday and Carnival Tuesday, there are three days exclusively dedicated to excesses - eating excessively, drinking excessively, meeting new romantic partners (and doing "you know what"), jumping over bonfires into the night, and other antics that are only allowed - and automatically forgiven - at this time. Even more important is the warmth that returns, slowly, to the Northern Hemisphere after Carnival. Therefore, Carnival festivities also serve as fertility rituals - after all, it is the opening for Spring, the season of the return of life.

In this context, we will show "Black Orpheus" by Marcel Camus: a 1958 film that is a reinterpretation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice based on the play "Orfeu da Conceição" by Vinícius de Moraes, and set during the carnival in Rio de Janeiro. The soundtrack is by Tom Jobim and Luís Bonfá. Perhaps the first time that the already sumptuous Brazilian Carnival becomes part of a cinematic narrative. The next day, we will immerse ourselves in Carnival - the ritual of our ancestors: we will show the short film "The Devil's Skin" by Zé Maria Mendonça e Moura, which tells the story of one of the rituals still celebrated in northern Portugal, specifically in Podence. Then we will watch "The Wicker Man": a 1973 film by Robin Hardy that shows another pagan fertility ritual, this one with origins in the British Isles, and creates strong consequences for a police officer trying to solve a crime. (Note that this is the original 1973 version and not the North American remake with Nicholas Cage as the protagonist.)

Spend your Carnival with us.
Come.