Iracema, uma transa amazônica

Indigenous teenager Iracema has left her family and is barely surviving by working as a prostitute in the city of Belém do Pará. She meets Tião Brasil Grande, an unscrupulous truck driver with a big mouth who is an apologist for the Brazilian economic miracle and military dictatorship. A small timer nonetheless, he is passing along the newly constructed Trans-Amazonian Highway and making a living from illegal hardwood. Initially, he takes Iracema with him, before then leaving her to her brutal fate.

This Cinema Novo highlight is a documentary/fiction hybrid road movie whose narrative unfolds in tandem with the devastation wrought by neocolonial-tinged extractivist capitalism. The film was made in an area of the Amazonas which was a national security zone under strict military control at the time. Iracema is a piercing guerilla trip through a reality that still exists to this day: expulsion, forest fires, deforestation, slavery and child prostitution. The ones to suffer most here were and are the Indigenous population, girls and women. World premiere of the restored version by Montanha Russa Cinematográfica. (Gaby Babić)

Jorge Bodanzky was born in 1942 in Brazil and studied at the Institut für Filmgestaltung at the HfG Ulm in Germany. Starting as a magazine photographer, he debuted in cinema in 1971 as a cinematographer and director. Iracema (1975) launched his series of Amazon-focused films, which he continues to this day. He has directed over 60 features.

Orlando Senna was born in 1940 in Bahia in Brazil and has directed and written over 30 films. Originally a journalist, he has directed documentaries, contributed to theatre, headed the Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV in Havana, Cuba, the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica in Mexico, and the Brazilian public broadcasting company EBC. He also served as Brazil’s Audio-Visual Secretary.

Directors Jorge Bodanzky, Orlando Senna. Screenplay Orlando Senna. Cinematography Jorge Bodanzky. Editing Eva Grundmann, Jorge Bodanzky. Music Jorge Bodanzky. Sound Design Achim Tappen. Production Design Wolf Gauer, Achim Tappen, Malu Bodanzky. Costumes Conceição Senna. Producers Wolf Gauer, Jorge Bodanzky. Production companies Stop Film, ZDF (Mainz, Germany). With Edna de Cássia, Paulo César Pereio, Lúcio dos Santos, Conceição Senna, Elma Martins, Orlando Senna.

World sales Gullane+

Films

Jorge Bodanzky: 1971: Caminhos de Valderez / Paths of Valderez (co-directed by Hermano Penna). 1975: Iracema (co-directed by Orlando Senna). 1973: Gitirana (co-directed by Orlando Senna). 1979: Jari. 1980: O Terceiro Milênio / The Third Millenium. 2020: Utopia/Distopia. 2024: As cores e amores de Lore / The Colors and Lovers of Lore.

Orlando Senna: 1969: A construção da morte / The Construction of Death. 1975: Iracema (co-directed by Jorge Bodanzky). 1976: Gitirana (co-directed by Jorge Bodanzky). 1977: Diamante bruto. 1987: Brascuba (co-directed Santiago Álvarez). 2018: 2018: A Idade da Água. 2020: Longe do Paraís / Far from Paradise.

The screening dates for IRACEMA on berlinale.de

Bonus Material