Directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos
Nelson Pereira dos Santos planned to follow up Vidas Secas (1963) immediately with an adaptation of Graciliano Ramos' account of his time as a political prisoner in the 1930s, but political realities after the coup of 1964 delayed the project two decades. Taking up Ramos' story just before the then-government's anti-communist crackdown, dos Santos follows the author's ordeal as a prisoner, but also his journey as an intellectual encountering in his fellow prisoners the humanity he'd only theorized before as a political abstraction.
Embrafilme. Screenwriter: Nelson Pereira dos Santos. Based on the memoir by Graciliano Ramos. Cinematographers: Jose Medeiros, Antônio Liz Soares. Editor: Carlos Alberto Camuyrano. Cast: Carlos Vereza, Glória Pires, José Dumont, Tonico Pereira, Lygia Diniz.
35mm, color, in Portuguese with English subtitles, 185 min.