'Aquarius' team at Cannes festival raise concerns about situation in Brazil

Record ID: 102799

  • Title: 'Aquarius' team at Cannes festival raise concerns about situation in Brazil
  • Date: 18th May 2016
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 17, 2016) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF 'AQUARIUS' CAST AND CREW LEAVING AFTER SCREENING OF FILM AND SHOWING AGAIN THEIR SIGNS ON RED CARPET
  • Embargoed: 2nd June 2016 18:30
  • Keywords: Cannes Film Festival Aquarius Brazil democracy
  • Location: CANNES, FRANCE AND UNKNWON FILMING LOCATIONS
  • City: CANNES, FRANCE AND UNKNWON FILMING LOCATIONS
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Film
  • Reuters ID: LVA0084IC6ATF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The Brazilian director Kleber Mendoca Filho, whose film "Aquarius" was critically acclaimed at the Cannes festival, and actress Sonia Braga expressed concern on Wednesday (May 18) over the situation in their country after the suspension of the president last week.
    Interim President Michel Temer was sworn into office after Dilma Rousseff was suspended on Thursday (May 12) by the Senate while she is tried on charges of breaking budget rules.
    "The people that are in the new government also, how much of them are corrupted already, there are cases proved. So as soon as they assume they have to leave. So all these transitions, it's going to be very hurtful for our democracy that was hard to get," Braga said.
    One of Temer's first measures was to eliminate the ministry of culture.
    "Wrong month to extinguish the ministry of culture because a film lade with public funds, very honest funds, is representing Brazil at the Cannes Film Festival in competition, so... But, you know, that's what is happening, and a lot more," Mendoca Filho said.
    On Tuesday, Mendoca Filho and his team staged a protest on the red carpet ahead of the film's premiere.
    "It's basically to let people know that, yes, there is something going on in Brazil right now and the narrative that comes from Brazilian media is completely biased, so what we did was we used the amazing platform that the Cannes Film Festival is for media and just made one very simple statement. It's basically a small gesture, taking out a piece of paper and doing this," the director told journalists.
    Asked about his vision of Recife, where the film is set, he said he wanted to show all the aspects of the seaside town.
    "I am not really into apocalyptic portraits of something or someone where everything is horrible and terrible and then it just gets worse and then it ends. I think when you are critical of something you have space of course to criticise something but also to show its normality and its beauty in some ways. This is where I live, it's far from perfect but so is Paris. Paris is very far from perfect and it's a great city, it a complete different way of course," Mendoca Filho said.
    "Aquarius", the story of a 65-year-old woman engaged in a battle with a company that wants to buy her apartment in Recife after it bought off the rest of the building, received critical acclaim after its premiere on Tuesday and is one of 21 films competing for the Palme d'Or.
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