Presents
METEORO
(a comedy with a sad, but hopeful ending)
Written and Directed by Diego de la Texera
Produced by Maria Dulce Saldanha
Featuring
Lucci Ferreira Maria Dulce Saldanha Claudio Marzo Daisy Granados Paula Burlamaqui Leandro Hassum Iracema Starling Felipe Kannenberg Daniel Lugo Gláucia Rodrigues Maria Marighella Pietro Mario Zécarlos Machado Marcos Weinberg Jairo Mattos Alexandre Dacosta Siã Kaxinawa Maiko Kozonoi Danielle Ornellas Miriam Morais Gustavo Ottoni
Marinho Gonçalves Agnaldo Silva Igor França José Adriano Jocélio Belo Juscemar
They were abandoned in the middle of nowhere...
and there they found everything...
An IMOVISION release
Cinemascope, Dolby 5.1 Digital Sound - 115 minutes
Sponsors
BR Petrobras, Telemig Celular, Tam, Eletrobras, Bndes, Infraero, Banco do Brasil, Visa, Furnas, Chesf, Correios, Ceb, Ancine, Governo Federal, Governo da Bahia, FazCultura, Bahiatursa, Coelce, Governo de Ceará, Cemig, Governo de Minas, Sesi Fiemg, Tim, Utingas, Assim, Quanta, Clear Channel RioPrefeitura, Globo Filmes
Table of Contents page
INTRODUCTION ................................................................ 4
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS ................................................... 5
LOG LINE ......................................................................... 5
SYNOPSIS ........................................................................ 6
CREW ............................................................................... 7
CAST ................................................................................ 8
CHARACTERS .................................................................... 10
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY .................................................... 12
INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR ........................................ 13
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY ................................................... 17
INTERVIEW WITH THE PRODUCER ....................................... 17
INTERVIEWS WITH THE ACTORS ......................................... 19
Paula Burlamaqui .................................................... 19
Daisy Granados ....................................................... 19
Lucci Ferreira .......................................................... 20
Cláudio Marzo ......................................................... 20
Leandro Hassum ...................................................... 20
Daniel Lugo ............................................................. 21
INTERVIEW WITH THE D.P. ................................................. 21
INTERVIEW WITH THE WARDROBE DESIGNER ....................... 22
INTERVIEW WITH THE COMPOSER ....................................... 23
INTRODUCTION
Freely inspired in real facts, Meteoro tells the story of a crew of engineers, technicians and workers bent on building a highway from Brasilia to Fortaleza (capital of the state of Ceará) within the scope of the Plan of Goals of Juscelino Kubitschek's government during the early 1960s. In the rough construction camp, routine was only broken by the sighting of shooting stars and the monthly visits of a merry group prostitutes commanded by an exotic, Oriental "Madame".
The military coup of 1964 led to the abandonment of the works of the Brasilia-Fortaleza highway and soon enough of the group of workers has to endure privations along with the "girls". The fall of a meteor makes their fortune change as it bursts open a generous water fountain between the outback and the desert. Such was the birth of the community of Meteoro, soon to be transformed in an oasis of utopia, ruled by the laws of affection, absence of property and harmony within the diversity whether it be ethnic, cultural or sexual. More than a decade later a new shooting star crosses the firmament and lands in Meteoro: this time, a military helicopter, that brought not abundance, but the stark political reality of a country under full military dictatorship.
Written and directed by Diego de la Texera, award winning Puerto Rican documentary filmmaker living in Rio de Janeiro for the past ten years, Meteoro features a diverse Latin American cast. Meteoro was shot in the outback(caatinga) of Juazeiro(State of Bahia) and in the dunes of Mundaú(State of Ceará) by Renato Padovani, ABC, upon sets constructed on location by Art Director Yukio Sato. The wardrobe was designed by Yamê Reis and the sound track was composed by Lui Coimbra and Marcos Susano. The film has Venezuelan sound(Carlos Bolívar and Ramón Brito) and Argentinean final editing(César D’Angiolillo), special effects(Martín Oesterheld) and finishing(Sergio Rentero/Image – Diego Gat/Sound).
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
SAN SEBASTIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – 2003
(CINEMA IN CONSTRUCTION)
SAN SEBASTIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – 2006
(HORIZONTES LATINOS)
PUERTO RICO CINEMAFEST - 2006 (BEST FILM - 2006
(PUBLIC'S PRIZE)
3rd WORLD ADVENTURE FILM FESTIVAL OF MANAUS - 2006
(OFFICIAL SELECTION)
SANTO DOMINGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – 2007
(BEST SOUND TRACK)
FESTIVAL LLATINOAMERICANO DE LLEIDA – 2007
(OFFICIAL SELECTION)
REENCONTRES DU CINEMA LATINO AMERICAIN DE TOULOUSE – 2007
(PANORAMA)
LOG LINE
During the 1960s a group of workers opening the Brasilia/Fortaleza highway are abandoned in a remote region along with a dozen visiting prostitutes. Together they organize the utopian society of Meteoro. Inspired in real facts.
SYNOPSIS
In January of 1964, amidst the euphoria of development sowed by the Juscelino Kubitschek government (1956-1961), the crew in charge of building the radial highway BR-020 Brasília/Fortaleza faces difficulties. They find a Sahara like desert – peppered with strange black rocks -- that obstructs the continuation of the road. Among the dumbfounded technicians are the geologist Dr. Raffaldi (Pietro Mario), the young and handsome land surveyor Aloísio (Lucci Ferreira) and his buddy, crane operator Gordo (Leandro Hassum), ex goldigger and owner of the camp's bar and restaurant Meirelles (Cláudio Marzo), and the German radio operator Hans (Felipe Kannenberg).
Supplies have periodically arrived by truck through the unpaved roadbed already structured. The long, lonely nights are alleviated every month with the arrival of the merry group of prostitutes led by a dazzling Madame (Daisy Granados). Among the girls the audience will meet young and libertarian Nova (Maria Dulce Saldanha), an ex-circus artist and first time prostitute; exuberant Eva (Paula Burlamaqui) and Iracema (Iracema Starling), blonde and brunette versions of sensuality and many other beautiful girls. Aloísio and Nova fall in love instantly. Gordo is not that lucky. Eva, his love object prefers introverted Hans, the German radio operator. Madame does not make a secret of her love for Meirelles.
During the last visit of the "girls" news of a Military Coup come in through the radio. Soon after, heavy rains – strangely out of season -- wipe out the roadbed and Madame's bus cannot get through to pick them up at the camp. After the deluge passes, Hans contacts the Ministry over the radio and a plane starts dropping supplies regularly by parachute; until one day it does not return. There is now no doubt: they have been abandoned by the new military government in a remote "island" in the middle of an ocean of desert and outback.
Some leave to get help, never to return. To worsen the situation the radio sputters, explodes and kaput. A few weeks later our 80 heroes and heroines -- isolated, thirsty, famished, dirty and irascible -- witness the fall of a meteorite near the camp that burrows deeply into the ground and bursts a water fountain that shoots up like a geyser. Along with the meteorite appears, out of nowhere, Julião (Siã Kaxinawa), an Indian, carrying a hunted deer on his back. He believes the blessing of the water has a clear meaning: they are going to remain there for a long time. In order to reap a better quality of life for all they must garner the water in a pool and irrigate the desert.
The hamlet, now named Meteoro, develops into a good humored anarchical community: among such heterogeneous components everything is permitted that improves the common goals. The landscape changes: the outback becomes an oasis and out of the dunes, five years later, a new character appears: Ibraiim, the Turk (Daniel Lugo), a handsome itinerant trader. Nobody thinks anymore in leaving Meteoro. Families are formed, children are born, lovers quarrels are solved by consensus. And so, life goes on rich and easy and time passes imperceptibly, its gentle flow upset only by the death of the elders.
Thirteen years later a new luminous object crosses the celestial vault and lands in Meteoro. Instead of a meteor or a UFO, it is a military helicopter. The military are welcomed with joy that does not last long: soon enough they start interrogating and torturing the villagers searching for links between Meteoro and communist guerrilla units that operate in the region. One of the officers, Major Arruda (Marcos Weinberg), does not agree with such methods. Suspected to be the liaison with the guerrilla, Julião, the Indian, convinces the community that the time to leave Meteoro has arrived. The Brazilian flag hoisted by Meirelles in the early times of Meteoro is lowered and folded. The group, sad yet hopeful, bids farewell to their village and starts the search for another beautiful place to hoist up again Meirelles' Brazilian flag.
***
CREW
Director and Screenplay: Diego de la Texera
Collaborators Screenplay: Marcos Bernstein e Regina Antonini
Producer: Maria Dulce Saldanha
Line Producer : Bia Castro
Production Design: Diego de la Texera
Director of Photography: Renato Padovani
Art Director: Yukio Sato
Sound Designer and Sound Mixer: Carlos Bolívar
Music: Lui Coimbra e Marcos Suzano
Special Effects Designer: Martin Oesterheld
Editing: César D'Angiolillo e Marcelo Pedrazzi
Wardrobe Designer: Yamê Reis
Make up: Bob Paulino e Vavá Torres
Hair: Cristiane Régis, Pepê e Zica
Director's Assistant/Casting Director: Cris D´Amato
Set Decoration: Fernanda Senatori
Props: Gegê
Boom Man: Alejandro Rivas, Douglas Póvoas Vianna
Camera Operator: Maurizio D´Altri/Isabella Fernandez
Steadicam Operator: Fabrício Tadeu e Gustavo Pessoa
Focus Puller: Jorge Alves
CAST
Aloísio Lucci Ferreira
Nova Maria Dulce Saldanha
Gordo Leandro Hassum
Old Meirelles Claudio Marzo
Madame Daisy Granados
Eva Paula Burlamaqui
Hans Felipe Kannenberg
Iracema Iracema Starling
Turco Daniel Lugo
Dr. Raffaldi Pietro Mario
Eurídice Gláucia Rodrigues
Inspirado Zé Carlos Machado
Nakamura Maiko Kozonol
Clarice Maria Marighella
Maria Aparecida Miriam Moraes
Maria Conceição Danielle Ornellas
Julião Siã Kaxinawa
Troco Alexandre da Costa
Major Arruda Marcos Weinberg
Muller Jairo Matos
Alves Netto Amaury Alvarez
Pelotudo Nicolas Trevijano
Cozinheiro Sérgio Pessoa
Cuiquinha Jucemar
Garotão Jocelio Bello
Beto Rabeca Igor França
Ribeirinho Zé Adriano
Manolo Gustavo Ottoni
Boca de Sapo Marinho Gonçalves
Cupuaçu Agnaldo Silva
Zé Paulistano Zé Mariano
Jõ Paulistano Antônio Destro
Estrelinha Laila Duarte
Hansinho Sérgio Vieira
Tenente Costa Tuareg
Salgado Murilo Elbas
Piloto Alexandre Moreno
Paraguayo Jair
CHARACTERS
ALOÍSIO (Lucci Ferreira) Land surveyor, handsome, educated, he is the lover boy of the girls of Madame and also the narrator of the story. He falls in love with Nova instantly.
NOVA (Maria Dulce Saldanha) Formerly a circus tightrope artist, she is discovered by Madame and makes her debut as prostitute with Aloísio resulting in the first couple of Meteoro. Accustomed to watch the starry skies while on tour through the countryside, she is sensitive, intuitive and above all, free.
GORDO (Leandro Hassum) - From Rio de Janeiro, born prankster is Aloísio's best friend. He falls in love with Eva, but she prefers Hans, the German. On the rebound from chronic jealousy, he is conquered by Clarice(Maria Marighella).
Dr. RAFFALDI (Pietro Mario) Geologist of Italian origin, he is the eldest of the community and one of it's natural leaders. A widower, he re-discovers his long lost sexuality with Eurídice (Gláucia Rodrigues). He is the first to die in Meteoro, but dies happy in the arms of his loved one.
OLD MEIRELES (Cláudio Marzo) Formerly a goldigger from Pará, experienced and cunning, he owns the concession to run the bar and restaurant in the construction camp and is Madame's natural business partner turned lover. He is a bon vivant and an important mediator in the direct democracy of Meteoro.
MADAME (Daisy Granados) Owner of the traveling bordello that services the BR 020 - Brasília/Fortaleza construction camp. Tough business woman, materialist at heart. Yet her heart -- tough as it is -- melts down when she is in front of Old Meirelles. She has fallen in love with the nonchalant drunkard and to pay homage to their love she schedules her monthly visits to the camp during the full moon, akin for love. Although resisting at the beginning, she accepts the abolition of prostitution and quickly adapts to the new equalitarian agreements of Meteoro's free wheeling community.
EVA (Paula Burlamaqui) She is named after the first woman of the bible, a tribute to motherhood, to the Life Force so well depicted by Bernard Shaw. She is the quintessence of sensuality, has great seductive powers and wants to grab her man and have many children. She attends Gordo's wooing, but she is really interested in the introspective, silent German radio operator, who contrary to Gordo, pays no attention to her. Persisting in her intuition, she is wise and patient enough both to enjoy Gordo, while she works on Hans, finally becoming a mother to Hans' child, with the collateral damage to Gordo's feelings.
HANS (Felipe Kannenberg) German of Jewish origin, radio operator of the construction camp. Strictly a rational man, he feels guilty of their isolation because he cannot fix the radio which seems to respond to forces of a different nature. He is too busy with his self imposed responsibility to notice Eva, but by the middle of the film he humanly gives up, and falls for Eva.
MARIA APARECIDA (Miriam Moraes) and MARIA CONCEIÇÃO (Danielle Ornellas) Exceptionally beautiful black twins, coveted by all men. They act like if they were one character and never separate, not even to make love. You want one, you get two. They are Madame's most expensive "product". Madame usually gives them to Alves Netto, Chief of the camp, but they later go with the Paulistano brothers and wind up as the wives of the Indian Julião.
IRACEMA (Iracema Starling) Beautiful brunette that dreams herself as Sheherazade, the princess of Arabian Nights, the Arab classic, wishing for her Haroun al Raschid, who one day appears over the dunes of the desert in the guise of a Palestinian traveling peddler. It is love at first sight.
IBRAIIM, O TURCO (Daniel Lugo) Palestinian peddler, eternal hippie, comes out of the blue sky onto the white dunes of the desert. Although being a wily merchant, he cannot help being contaminated by the freedom of the community of Meteoro , but must leave to his business, but returns quickly to Iracema bringing with him a truckload of goods to celebrate their wedding and solve the material problems of Meteoro. He happily lets go of his business to embrace the creative idleness of Meteoro.
JULIÃO (Siã Kaxinawa) Indian sage. He cultivates respect for the Elders up in the Land of the Spirits and the harmonic co-habitation with the elements of Nature. He acts as if he were the godfather of the entire community. He comes to and fro the village of Meteoro as free and unpredictable as the wind.
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY
DIEGO DE LA TEXERA
Director, screenwriter, D.P./cameraman and producer. Born in Puerto Rico he studied Drama and Cinema up to the doctoral level at New York University(1964-1972)and earned participation in the exclusive, two year, "hands on" training program of the Directors Guild of America, of which he is still an active member.
Active militant of political and cinematographic causes in New York City. In 1971, back in Puerto Rico, he founded Sandino Filmes, Inc., a production company engaged in making documentaries and news for TV(ABC, NET, PVI, GBH, etc.), TV spots and production services for the big New York and Hollywood production companies shooting tropical locations in Puerto Rico.
In the late seventies he moved to Nicaragua during the Second Sandinista War to help organize the counter-propaganda effort against Somoza in the Southern Front. After the victory he was one of the founders of INCINE (Nicaraguan Film Institute)and wrote, directed and shot El Danto, the first film produced in free Nicaragua.
In 1980 he shot El Salvador: el pueblo vencerá(El Salvador: the people will win), his best known work winner of the Grand Coral in Havana Film Festival(1980), the Golden Prize in Moscow Film Festival(1981) and the coveted FIPRESCI in Lille(1981), among many other. He was one of the founders of the ICSR(Instituto Cinematográfico de El Salvador Revolucionario) and co-founder of the EICTV(Escola Internacional de Cinema e TV de San Antonio de Los Baños (Cuba), where he designed the Cinematography curriculum, purchased the equipment and directed the department until 1987.
Among his previous films the following stand out:
¡Piñones va! (1976 - Sandino Filmes, Inc./Wnet co-production), a documentary about the struggle of a black community fighting off the construction of a big hotel in their ancient lands; Tesoro(1987 - co-production between Panamá, Venezuela and Puerto Rico), his first feature, an adventure film about three teenagers seeking a pirate's booty in the Caribbean; and Treetap(1996), a documentary about Indians and Rubber Tappers in the far west of Amazônia.
Meteoro is his second feature, shot in Brazil, where he has lived for the past ten years. His next projects include:
It shall wave alone, a black comedy about a missing in action Vietnam vet returning to San Juan, after many years of being thought dead; An American detective, a noir political thriller about a Brazilian Private Eye hired to find a couple that "disappeared" during the Pinochet coup in Chile; Marighella!, political thriller about the leader of Brazilian resistance fighter against the military dictatorship(author of the famous Mini-Manual of Urban Guerrilla) murdered by the illegal regime in 1969.
He is in he process of transforming his 1977 four part film book Chronicle of the first sandinista war(1926-1934) into The last of the Banana Wars, a novel about the life and loves of general Augusto Sandino, architect of the first U.S. military defeat, decades before Vietnam.
INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR
DIEGO DE LA TEXERA
What is the origin of Meteoro?
Late in 1996 I was looking for synopses of television films to be shot in Latin America for a package with Universal. I went to Sky Light Cinema in Rio to get Bruno Stropianna's synopses and came across a little text -- not a synopsis according to Bruno -- that caught my eye. It narrated the adventure lived by himself and three other colleagues. While shooting a documentary in the Brazilian Northeast, they got lost and found a little village between Bahia and Piauí, founded by the remainders of the construction crew that was building the Brasilia/Fortaleza Federal Highway BR 020. After the Military Coup of April 1964, the construction crew is abandoned by the military, along with a dozen visiting prostitutes. Together they create the community of Nova Holanda. I found the idea fascinating and surrealistic. I added other experiences and elements to it and started cooking it. Life next to Maria Dulce(producer, actress and wife of the director) and her friends Paula Burlamaqui and Iracema Starling was a source of inspiration. Parallel to the writing, I was studying Brazil's history, specially the JK Years, a period of great desire for change and modernization. I started thinking about a film about these persons isolated and untouched by the military coup bent upon the creation of new horizons. I added a few UFOs and some meteors -- a recurrent theme during the construction of Brasilia in the middle of nowhere. That's how the idea of Meteoro was born.
One of the highlights of the community of Meteoro is the harmonic co-habitation of various ethnic groups and cultures: Indian, White, Black, Japanese, German, Portuguese, Arab, Cuban, Argentinean, Paraguayan. There are also Paulistas, Bahianos and Nordestinos. How was that "settlement" done?
I tried to reproduce the formation of Brazil, where so many ethnic groups and nationalities integrate into one nation. These characters would live in a utopian Brazil, hell bent on the construction of a perfect society. Meteoro is a metaphor of what could have happened, but did not, because of the military coup. Yet I created a "good" military man, such as were in real life men like Admiral Cândido Aragão, o General Teixeira Lott, o Colonel Baptista Neiva and the notorius Sérgio "Macaco" and many other military men who refused to be co-opted by the military dictators and the coup. In the film there a great difference between career officers and the torturers. I tried not to create manichean characters, but archetypes with half tones. And even if they did not exist, they should have existed.
Besides the integration of different nationalities and accents, Meteoro presents also a multiplicity of genres and styles: documentary, comedy, musical, allegory, drama. How was the tone of the film designed?
I started out from what I call the Cinema of the Heart of Charlie Chaplin, who made films with characters easy for mass audiences to identify with: the Cop, the Drunkard, the Millionaire, the Tramp, the Flower Vendor, the Orphan, etc. There is a big confusion in Brazil about stereotypes and archetypes. I worked with archetypes in a wide Cinemascope canvas of forty actors and actresses. Regarding the tone, the film starts during the inauguration of Brasilia with a realistic, almost documentary form(including archive footage)describing the construction of the highway which extends until the arrival of the Girls of the Madame, when the style eases off. When the group is abandoned in the middle of nowhere and the meteor "falls" from the sky, the narrative form lets herself be impregnated with the mystery, magic and fantasy of the locale. A very natural shift of tone demanded by the twists in the story itself.
Shifts of tone are usually considered dramatic risks and you seem to have worked that fusion of tones with a lot of freedom.
I worked with total freedom bringing along all my convictions. Western dramaturgy is Aristotelian in its essence and Freudian in its psychology. Whoever steps outside those canons is wrong. I tried less trodden trails: Jungian collective(archetypal) psychology and Brechtian, choral, epic dramaturgy.
I knew the risks I was assuming and took them all on. Had I not done that, I would have made a run of the mill film. I see Meteoro as a river that starts out with a straight course and starts making curves, seeming not to know where it is going, but inviting the spectator to jump in and let the current take her/him all the way to the sea, where all rivers finally rest.
The story of Meteoro happens during thirteen years, has no protagonists and paints a wide canvas of many characters. How was the making of the screenplay?
The 25 page treatment surprisingly quick: one night vomiting it and a day of polishing. The first version of the screenplay was also quick: 15 DAYS IN Rio and 15 days in Búzios. Afterwards I invited two collaborators: Marcos Bernstein (Central Station)and Regiana Antonini, who polished, rounded out, deepened and peppered with feminine touches the Girls of Madame.
How was such an heterogeneous cast selected?
Some actors popped up naturally as I wrote and rewrote the screenplay, and others came while scouting theater and film actors. We did not care for "famous" actors, but actors that looked like, that "were" our characters, be it a young actor, like Lucci Ferreira, or a veteran like Cláudio Marzo. Cris d´Amato, my AD and Casting Director made a difference in selecting the cast consisting of 40 actors and 70 extras. Pietro Mario(the Italian geologist)used to be GLOBO's Captain Hurricane during the sixties, a great finding. I also wanted a touch of Latin American integration. So I invited Daisy Granados, an old friend from Cuba for the role of Madame. I wrote the part of Ibraiim the Turk with Daniel Lugo -- one of Puerto Rico's most loved actors -- as a model. Maria Dulce as Nova was the easiest one. I wrote the character inspired in her. The most difficult part to cast was Julião, the Indian.
Why?
Since the beginning I wanted a real Indian. Incredible as it seems, I had written the part inspired in an Indian I had known many years before, Siã, Chief of the Kaxinawa, a tribe of western Acre(land of Chico Mendes)involved in vegetal extractivism, but had lost contact with him. I held various casting sessions with Indian actors, but I was not happy with any. I was at this dead end when, magically, Siã reappeared in Rio de Janeiro. When I invited him to play the role of Julião(he was not an actor, but a documentary filmmaker, as well as an ecological leader), he asked to do a test. We shot the test and he passed with flying colors. Siã did not need to "play" an Indian, because he "was" one. He learned to speak Portuguese at age 14 and has preserved his simplicity and wisdom.
How was directing the actors?
I stimulated improvisation, invention and the actors enriched the characters a lot. The cast was composed of simple people easy to get along with. I wanted naturalistic, underacting, like Bogie, like Jimmy Dean to give the sensation of absolute realism. The "madness" should come from the story itself. The "magic realism" and the humor of the second part of the film should not stem from a shift of acting style, but from the juxtaposition of underacting with extraordinary events.
I created an off screen biography of each character for the actors to know themselves -- and each other -- as characters. As the actors were mostly young and did not live the JK years, I furnished them with that historical background extracted from the funny, cunning, satyrical Brasil aos trancos e barrancos, by Darcy Ribeiro, one of JK's collaborators. The discovery of the two locations in Bahia and Ceará crystallized in a real geography the plasticity I had in my mind.
What about the sound tracK?
In Meteoro presence of the music is very expressive and diverse: samba, tango, bolero, a symphonic track with Arab timbres. There is also a tarantella, salsa, mambo, northeastern sounds. For me film is music and unwinds like a the score of a symphony, concerto, nocturne depending on the genre and the moods. I had the luck to count with Lui Coimbra and Marcos Susano who created a “many splendored” sound track, winner of Best Sound Track Award in the Santo Domingo Film Festival, dedicated this year to the theme "Music in Cinema"
Music always played an essential role in Meteoro and I really wanted to add the Arab tones I felt present in Northeastern music, intuition which I later confirmed by studying the matter and "discovering" that Arab immigration and influence was very strong in the region during the beginning of the 20th Century.
How did you establish the visual concept of Meteoro?
From the beginning a Portuguese word was in my mind: singelo, a mixture between simplicity and profundity. The only instruction I gave my DP(Renato Padovani, ABC) was: "I want a photography inspired in the Italian classics." Our reference films were Le Roi de Coer(King of Hearts), Amarcord, Mediterraneo, Notte de San Lorenzo and many other Italian sexy-comedies of the sixties and seventies, many of them starred by Sophia and Marcello, by Vittorio Gasman, Ugo Tognazzi and Alberto Sordi. And I trusted Renato, who is Italian and was one of the characters of the story. He was one of the group that had "discovered" Nova Holanda in 1978.
How was the shooting considering the number of actors involved?
A perfumed ball. It was obvious that little problems sprung forth, but none that neutralized the happiness of the shooting. I went to war surrounded by the best officers and soldiers. Because of production conveniences the film was shot in two stages: the first stage during seven and a half weeks in Juazeiro, Bahia(June/August 2002) and the second one three weeks in Mundaú, Ceará(October/November 2004). Meteoro was such a magical film that even that two year interruption was advantageous, for I gave me the chance to rethink, reformulate, breathe. I liked it so much that from here on I pretend to shoot my next films in two stages.
You went to Nova Holanda, the village that inspired the creation of Meteoro?
Yes, we visited Nova Holanda, a small village lost in the outback between Piauí e Bahia. Curiously they have not conserved any vestiges of their “heroic” origin lost with the passing of the generation of Elders that lived it. Maybe we'll show the film there to help them rescue their lost memory.
Meteoro depicts a society of utopian ways without private property, with harmony within the diversity, the predominance of common good, concepts far off our contemporary world devoid of Utopias. How do you see the encounter of Meteoro with the public?
I am a fighter for the first independence of my country Puerto Rico from the USA, colonial power occupying our land since 1898. I also fought for the second independence of Nicaragua and El Salvador from the USA, neocolonial power securing the strings of dominance in the region. Maybe, according to the historical appraisal of the unilateral world power, the utopians were defeated, but there are many old leftists and ex-guerrilla fighters taking power in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Panamá. Utopia was defeated? Maybe the marxist-leninist-stalinist utopia(that never was!) in the USSR was defeated. But not Utopia itself. For sure, justice and social redemption will not be attained by obeying the neoliberal laws of the market. I consider the need for Utopia the crucial question of the 21st Century. This globalized (but not brave!)new world is creating a crying need for spiritual values never to be found in the unstoppable and meaningless consumption of brand products that only bring more inequality and social distance between the haves and the have nots. Meteoro shows happy people, because in the middle of nowhere they found essential values: Nature, love, comradeship, dialogue, sex, solidarity. Meteoro is not a film about conflict, but about harmony. It is an allegorical comedy with a sad, yet hopeful end. The end of Utopia means the end of the dream. And the dream has not ended and never will, because it is part of the human condition.
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY
MARIA DULCE SALDANHA / PRODUCER AND ACTRESS (NOVA)
Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, formed in the theater, still a teenager took courses with various directors(Roberto Bomtempo, Domingos de Oliveira, Tizuka Yamasaki, Luiz Fernando Lobo). Maria Dulce lived in France from 1988 to 1990, where she worked with dance, circus and tap dance. Back in Brazil she worked in TV Globo (Você Decide) and in the soap opera Amazônia, directed by Tizuka Yamasaki, with whom she traveled to Cuba in 1991, where she met Diego de la Texera. She lived in Puerto Rico and New York and acted in a film in Mexico (Bienvenido, Welcome).
INTERVIEW WITH THE PRODUCER
MARIA DULCE SALDANHA
How did the idea of producing Meteoro came about?
I wanted to start my career as a film producer with a short film, but when I read the treatment of Meteoro I fell in love with the story. I spoke with Diego and we agreed to gather strength to go forward with the project. I wanted to produce the film because I'm an idealist; I believe the dream must go on and that art is a marvelous learning instrument.
I found the formation of Utopia in Meteoro very pretty. I felt very Brazilian and became more of a patriot. Having lived in various countries I was attracted by the concept of Latin American integration and the film goes well into this notion. Meteoro hit things in which I firmly believe: harmony among diversity and a society without any type of prejudice
How was the process of financing and organizing the production of Meteoro?
Fund raising began in 2000. We fought a lot and gathered 22 sponsors and the support of the governments of the states of Bahia and Ceará. We had a lot of luck, for we heard more yes than no. Luck overlapped over to location scouting. The first one we visited in the Vale do Salitre in Juazeiro, Bahia was perfect, it even had the rocky hill interrupting the road, exactly as we needed. For the second phase we discovered the dunes of Mundaú in the state of Ceará. The production was tough, but very stimulating: we did not want to show the realistic misery and poverty of the region, so we opted for a certain aesthetic "confusion" with a fashion touch of modernity that was present in the JK years. That was the reason for choosing our Art Director Yukio Sato and our wardrobe designer Yamê Reis. They are classic and modern at the same time. They understood perfectly the spirit of the aesthetic we wanted.
It took five months to pre-produce the film. It involved the widening of a dirt road into the measurements of a federal highway, the perforation of a well to fill up the pool and the transformation of 800 meters of the widened highway into a safe landing strip for our picture plane(a fully restored "V" tailed, 1964 Beechcraft Bonanza, just like Juscelino's)to land. We counted with the support of the governments of the states of Bahia and Ceará for those heavy tasks: the water supply to keep the cast and crew going, the equipment to dig the well, without forgetting the landing pad for the helicopter that only flew in during the last minute of the last quarter.
Always in the spirit of looking for the best solution to the lower cost/best price equation, we decided to post-produce Meteoro in Buenos Aires(final editing, sound editing, sound mix, digital effects and image mastering).Our Argentinean collaborators were very professional, worked with high quality standards and lower prizes than in Brazil. Our sound crew came from Venezuela, adding another co-producing country. Now it was Brazil, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
How did you feel during the shooting of your first film?
The shooting was exhausting including three weeks of night schedule. The "set" was 45 minutes from the hotel, but thanks to the great affinity between cast, crew, production and the director we lived the Utopian atmosphere of Meteoro, under an inspiring sky. In Mundaú, we faced the desert with enormous dunes and constant wind. It was a delicate matter to shoot scenes that had continuity with scenes shot two years before, but we were able to do it.
Wasn't it heavy for you to accumulate the roles of producer, actress and director's wife?
Working with Diego was very easy: he calmed me down. There is a great aesthetic affinity and mutual trust between us. He knew exactly the kind of film he was doing and that certainty gave me security...if that is actually possible in your debut as a producer. Diego is a very experienced director -- he shot films under fire. After such experiences, I think that any "normal" production is just fun for him. He is a sweet ex-guerrilla fighter, not a snotty intellectual. He is always happy, light and brought with him the inspiration of Utopia onto the set. The most difficult part of producing and acting at the same time is physical exhaustion, because production and cast have different hours and days off, so I never got to rest. But after the first two weeks my production crew threw me out literally to the hotel where the cast was staying. My production colleagues covered me as much as possible so I could take care of everything. Another tiresome element was rehearsing the tightrope. There was a time during pre-production when I worked all day in rehearsal attire, because at lunch time I had to dash to the National Circus School to train with my professor. That was a crazy scheme!
How do you define Nova, your character in the film?
She is a woman of great purity, very intuitive and spontaneous. She comes from the circus into prostitution for lack of better opportunities. Nova is a libertarian, being both sweet and forceful. Playing her was refreshing, next to the problems of production, and an enormous pleasure. She symbolizes -- wearing her yellow/green clothes upon the tightrope -- the force of Brazilian ingenuity.
INTERVIEWS WITH THE ACTORS
Paula Burlamaqui / Associate Producer / Eva
Film and TV actress. She was featured in Paixão Perdida by Walter Hugo Khoury, O Circo das Qualidades Humanas by Milton Alencar and Viva Sapato by Luiz Carlos Lacerda, besides short films.
"I was taken aback by the script since the first reading up to the point of helping with fund raising. We worked with persistence and I think it was worthwhile. I think the film is going to touch all generations, because it delivers a message of optimism, of the need to construct a better society and of solidarity and harmony within the diversity. Without any doubt, if everybody could live the experience of Meteoro, Brazil would be a much better country."
"Eva is delicious, she is an exuberant woman. She arrives into the camp and falls in love with the German(Hans), in spite of attracting Gordo into her love web. The shooting was great and the cast was excellent. We had body language classes and we studied the gestures and behavior of women in the sixties. Besides being prostitutes, the girls had class, glamour, elements nowadays lacking. They are pure, elegant, angels, they believe in love -- they all want to marry and have children -- they are romantic prostitutes.”
Daisy Granados (Madame)
One of the foremost stars of Cuban cinema, Daisy, worked in Memories of Underdevelopment(Tomás Gutiérrez Alea)and in various films directed by top Cuban directors like Humberto Solás, Cecilia Valdés, Un hombre de éxito; including her husband Pastor Vega, who passed away in 2005: Portrait of Teresa, Habanera, Parallel Lives, Amanda's prophecies, among many others.
"I wanted to play Madame since I first read the script in the middle of the year 2000, when Diego and Maria Dulce gave to me in Rio de Janeiro after Gramado Film Festival. It is always difficult to act in another country, in a different language, but after a few days of shooting I felt home, like if I was in my own country. The affinity between crew and cast was excellent and liked particularly working with Diego, an old friend that made me feel very secure. The locations in the desert were wonderful, the sets were colossal, it seemed that village had always been there. Meteoro tells a fantastic story and I hope sometime humanity could form a such community. I keep in my memory extraordinary moments, on the sets, during days off, the parties, the dancing! Working in Meteoro was much more than an agreeable professional experience, it was the confirmation that we must fight everyday more and more for Latin American filmmakers to be able to do their films wherever, regardless of where they were born or lived."
Lucci Ferreira (Aloísio)
Born in Bahia, theater, film and TV actor, he was one of the highlights of the mini series The JK years and acted in Women of Brazil, by Malu de Martino.
"Aloísio represents the progress that took over Brazil during the JK years. He is a visionary character that embodied the words of JK, but he is also a romantic. Diego knew very well how to conduct such a big cast that represented so many aspects of the Brazilian people. I enjoyed the shooting very much. Diego knows very well what he wants, yet he always opens a door for the actor to find himself and stand on his ground. I learned a lot. Living together in Juazeiro was very good and in a certain way we reproduced in real life the alternate society depicted by the film, that has no protagonists and tells the story of the group. Meteoro throws a fraternal look upon humanity, and in spite of what is commonly said today -- those values are out of fashion -- they are more necessary than ever: it is always good to dream of a fairer and more human society, and that is not only possible, but necessary."
Cláudio Marzo (Velho Meirelles)
One of the more versatile actors of Brazil. Among his most important films are: We were never so happy, by Murilo Salles, The naked man, by Hugo Carvana, The Xangô of Baker Street, by Miguel Farias, and many others.
"I fell in love with screenplay since the first reading, because the story it tells is also the story of Brazil. I felt myself such an integral part of the film that I assumed the role of watchdog of the screenplay, so that initial feeling was not lost. Diego is a natural leader and he is both gentle and crafty and transformed the shooting into an unforgettable experience. My character Meirelles is a very free and honest, and even if he is not the narrator of the story, he is a most important bulwark in the formation of the society of Meteoro. He faces adversity with his principles and values without ever corrupting. He is a delicious character, perhaps the most significant I have played in cinema. Meteoro is pure emotion in speaking about utopia. Maybe the utopia portrayed in the film does not exist any longer, but we are definitely poorer spiritually, because of its absence. Definitely!
Leandro Hassum (Gordo)
Theater, TV and film actor. One of the most important revelations in humor in the last years. Meteoro is his first feature film. Since Meteoro he has played important roles in the following movies: If I was you, by Daniel Filho, and The mystery of Irmã Vap, by Carla Camuratti.
"Diego was able to make a very truthful film, half fiction, half reality, where humanity and solidarity among the characters are the principal elements. My characte, Gordo, can be at times pathetic, but he is also a very affectionate person. Proof of this is when Eva(Paula Burlamaqui) gives birth to her child, he never looses hope it could be his son and asks Aloísio if the baby is fatty, although he knows it is not probable. I loved the process of shooting. It was my first feature film and it proves that when push comes to shove Brazilians know how to come together to make things happen."
Daniel Lugo (Turco)
One of the most popular actors from Puerto Rico. He has a great following in all of Latin America, because of his popular soap operas where he has played unforgettable roles for more than forty years. He has played lead roles in many films in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Mexico and Brazil. He is an icon in the ever growing Latino audiences in the United States. Among his previous films the following stand out: El enterrador de cuentos, by Víctor Cuchí, Amaneció de Golpe, by Carlos Azpúrua, Nicolás y Los demás, by Jacobo Morales and 100 años de perdón, by Alejandro Sadelman.
"The Turk is the eternal adventurer that obeys simply the intuition of his heart. He is a dealer of joy, poet of survival and of the eternal, noble heir of the desert sands. Playing a character so far away from me, in a language that I do not dominate, was a great challenge. Today I can say that I'm very happy, and that the confidence Diego had in me made me accept the challenge. What I see up on the screen makes me very happy and proud. Side by side, sharing with colleagues from the cast, the crew, the production team I lived an experience both marvelous and unforgettable."
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INTERVIEW WITH THE D.P.
Renato Padovani, ABC / Director of Photography
Born in Cordoba, Argentina, of Italian parents, Renato has lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for more than 30 years. He has photographed the following films: Tormentaand Por Incrível que Pareça, by Uberto Mollo, Viva Sapato, by Luiz Carlos Lacerda), Mais uma vez amorby Rosane Svartman, Ismael e Adalgisa by Malu de Martino and Sexo com Amor by Wolf Maia. Curiously, Renato was the DP of the documentary crew that "discovered" the community of Nova Holanda in 1978, fact upon which Meteoro is freely inspired.
"The film has two phases: before and after the fall of the meteorite. The first is more realistic and hinges around the construction of the highway. In the second, dreams and Utopia enter stage. That also correspond to two basic locations, had each its own different photographic treatment: a more realistic opening, followed by a surreal atmosphere, at times magic, transmitted by compositions and lens choices - either very open or very closed."
"Meteoro is classic in its narrative, without any pretensions or formal pirouettes. Diego wanted to tell that story in a simple way, which does not necessarily means the absence of challenges: it is not easy to film in the dunes that change with the shifting winds. And the outback(caatinga) has a very special light: at nine o'clock in the morning the sun is in the zenith.
The big challenge, not withstanding, was capturing the human side of a story without protagonists, told by 40 actors. Diego's work was excellent: he has a great sensibility and he is a humanist always searching for emotion, for the interior of the characters.
The film had Nature in its favor: when the Indian Julião returns upon the dunes a whirlwind forms magically upon a dune in the foreground, a present from Nature that happens when you are in sync. And I received a special present the night before the end of the shoot, while I was returning to the set from dinner, I saw an unforgettable meteor.
For me the filming of Meteoro had an even more special meaning, because I was part of the group that "discovered" Nova Holanda in 1978 during the shooting of the RAI documentary. It is very interesting to confirm how the past interferes in the present in the most unusual ways. Why did that group of documentary filmmakers took a side road? We knew it would finally hit a Federal Highway, but we did not know what we would find on he way there. It was a decision taken in a few minutes that 30 years later provokes repercussions with a beautiful film that speaks of Utopia and tolerance."
INTERVIEW WITH THE WARDROBE DESIGNER
Yamê Reis / Wardrobe Designer
Largely experienced in TV, Meteoro marks her debut as a film wardrobe designer.
"Meteorotells the story of this group of people through a long passage of time that starts in the 60s. We researched thoroughly the period, including the demeanor of prostitutes, which we did not want to dress as prostitutes. We sought sensuality rather than the stigma they leave on their wake. We created approximately 30 costumes(an average of six pieces per actor) 95% of which were designed and made by us - aside from a few pieces that were brought in brechos. The clothes had to show the mark of shortage of materials and of the wear end tear and abuse of time. Only after the arrival of the Turk, the wardrobe acquires the novelty of new materials and accessories.
The heaviest challenge was precisely to emphasize the passage of time during the shortage without falling into monotony. "The girls" had to invent new clothes with the material that was available, be it a tablecloth or the canvas from the tents and truck covers.
We went for strong colors for the costumes, because they were the only colors in a monochrome “hostile” environment. Nova dressed a lot of green, yellow and blue, symbol of hope and idealism which she represented. The other girls I dressed in red, pink, violet, coral, yellow. Madame's attire had traces of oriental exoticism, because her origin is mysterious. It is important to remember with respect to masculine clothes is that in Brazil at that period there were no jeans, but a pre-jeans model made of a brim that did not fade.
The set of Meteorowas a true "Babel of Goodness". Diego is a visionary and the shooting happened in a climate of great joy and harmony.
INTERVIEW WITH THE COMPOSERS
Lui Coimbra e Marcos Suzano / Sound Track
Partners for more than 15 years in the famous Aquarela Brasileira band, musicians Lui Coimbra and Marcos Suzano had never made a sound track for a feature film. In this interview Lui speaks of the creative process of composing more than 90 minutes of music, which won the Best Sound Track Award at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Santo Domingo in 2007.
LUI COIMBRA:
"Everything started when Diego asked us to compose a music that was to be played by one of the characters. After reading the screenplay we decided to create the music for fiddle, guitar, accordion and percussion. Diego liked it very much and invited us to do the music for the whole film. That initial theme was the base of the sound track, with variations and treatments, including orchestration. We invited a few heavy musicians like Carlos Prazeres on the oboe, Ubirajara, an 83 year old genius of the bandoneón, Marcos Nimrichter a virtuoso of the accordion and a string orchestra. Diego is a very musical director and had the film very clear and defined and never derailed from his objective. The screenplay contained all indications for the music like the creation of a melody of Arab resonance for the scene of the arrival of the Turk, also of the integration of various genres like the bolero "Rayito de Luna" and Gardel's tango "Mano a mano". We created over an hour of sound track and we were very satisfied and I must give credit to Diego for our happiness because of the affection and the autonomy he gave us to compose. The experience was so good, we just think of repeating it."