Wagner's cursed opera crashes into Brazilian slums—cousins, corruption, and a love that drowns.
The legend of Tristan and Isolde is one of the most beautiful love epics ever conceived. Richard Wagner, in a famous opera, had already tarnished its purity. The modern transposition of the legend is set in Brazil, in a village of poor fishermen on Guanabara Bay, framed by mountains not far from Rio de Janeiro. Two young cousins, Marcos and Jeronimo, get together to fish successfully - the arrastao is a large fishing net - and to resist the ugly local landowner, who sets the rules and the prices. This owner has a niece: Emaïsa, who loves Marcos and is loved by him.
Cinematography
Guanabara Bay as tragic character—mountains watching like gods.
Score
Wagner quotations that judge these characters from above.
Acting
Duda Cavalcanti's Emaïsa—love as both weapon and wound.
Director
Antoine d'Ormesson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Antoine d'Ormesson was a French-Brazilian aristocrat who fled to film in exile—this is his only feature, a vanished footnote between New Wave and Cinema Novo.
Pierre Barouh, who plays Jeronimo, composed 'A Man and a Woman' and allegedly improvised his most devastating scenes after d'Ormesson abandoned set control.
BR
FR
