Walter Hugo Khouri

Walter Hugo KHOURI (1929-2003) began at the Vera Cruz Studios as a production assistant on prestige pictures like O cangaceiro (1953), quickly leaving to direct his first feature, O giante de pedra (1953) for burgeoning production outfit Cinidistri.
Khouri’s career spanned 50 years, during which he embraced nearly every available production model, from low-rent Boca do Lixo to state-funded projects through Embrafilme. A portrayer of the brooding indifference and alienation of a privileged urban class, he was deeply rooted in São Paulo’s production culture and consistently used the city as part of his films’ visual design.
At a time when Brazilian filmmakers were lauded for their commitment to social issues dealing with the rural working poor, Khouri was criticized and often completely excised from historical surveys for his moody, intensely erotic tales of the upper-middle-classes. By the 1980s, however, his thematic palette had been absorbed into the mainstream and Khouri experienced his most prolific period.