Candeias’ contemplative fiction taken from real situations narrates brief moments in the lives of four characters inhabiting the banks of São Paulo’s Tietê river. The film’s point of departure is a woman who floats along in a canoe; as we follow her, we see the problems of survival in this community. The Margin is about two couples: on the one hand, a black woman – a prostitute – who has an affair with an unemployed white man who wears a suit; and on the other, an obsessive guy chasing after a blond girl. The Tietê isn’t always the setting for the film, but its characters are always more or less ‘in the margins’ – uprooted from their environments, disoriented, oppressed by the fast-changing city.
Finding images that are disarming in their metaphoric simplicity, Candeias opened the possibilities for thoughtful production in the highly commercial environment of the Boca do Lixo.
Film details
- Country of production
- Brazil
- Year
- 1967
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2012
- Length
- 96'
- Medium/Format
- 35mm
