Pra frente brasil (Go Ahead, Brazil!)

This is the first politica! film to be interdicted in Brazil since the "abertura" declared by President Joao Figueiredo. It is directly responsible for the dismissal of farmer Embrafilme chief Celso Amorim, accused of financing subversive statements with public funds and the film was forbidden to be shown in Cannes as well as in private screening rooms. PRA FRENTE BRASIL (Ahead Bresil) deals with tortures perpetrated in Bresil in the 1970's against political prisoners or simply suspects. Jofre is a man who is mistakenly taken for a terrorist and is brutally tortured to disclose names he has never heard of. Jofre's brother, Miguel, decides to mount his own investigations as to the whereabouts of his brother and becomes involved in a web of blackmail, intrigue and violence which is further complicated by the reappearance of his revolutionary activist girlfriend, Marianna, who seeks refuge in his apartment after a bank raid. Farias has seldom been so committed to a social issue as with this film. He was never directly involved in the "cinema nôvo" political movement of the sixties led by Glauber Rocha, though his films SELVA TRAGICA and ASSALTO AO TREM PAGADOR are in many ways a reflection of that style.
(Berlinale '83)