Era uma vez Brasília

Adirley Queirós had the intuition that Brazilian reality pertains to the symbolic universe of science fiction and thus conceived a militarized dystopia at an uncertain, although still contemporary time where the sun itself seems to have been abolished; the star that sheds its light over us appears in an of-screen cameo role to reveal a generalized mood. Brazil is a country submerged in darkness. In this almost apocalyptic scenario, a woman who was imprisoned, a musician, and an intergalactic traveler from a planet called Karpenstahll – with the anachronistic mission of killing the president of the Republic, Juscelino Kubitschek – are the protagonists of a set of episodes which delineate an emotional and political situation. Dilma Roussef’s speech on her destitution and the one of her successor Michel Temer as head of State are organically incorporated into the story, in which the melancholy of the characters deepens and a stance towards resistance is belatedly detected. Queirós’ ingenuity in creating a scenario at once recognizable and displaced from Brazil’s immediate reality is admirable. Trains, subways, and stations are used in the staging by displacing them from their usual function. In Queirós’ plebeian cinema, imagination substitutes a lack of economic resources and the political powerlessness of a people is momentarily dispelled in a discreet call for rebellion. (Roger Koza)