In the 70's, the fifteen years old whore Iracema (Edna de Cássia) meets the truck driver Sebastião, a.k.a. "Tião Brazil Grande" (Paulo César Peréio), and travels with him along the Amazon Forest through Transamazônica, the longest Brazilian highway recently built by the military government to bring development to the area settling landless peasants. When Tião drops her on the road, Iracema is submitted to the most decadent types of prostitution to survive.
"Iracema Uma Transa Amazônica" is an amazing film that discloses the truth about the development of Amazonas, reason why the censorship of the dictatorship has not allowed its exhibition in the movie theaters for many years. In the 70's, the Brazilian military dictatorship opened the longest Brazilian highway though the Amazon forest and the official speech was that this road would bring development to the area settling landless peasants. However, what this movie denounces is the beginning of the announced ecological disaster through the uncontrolled burning of the forest and illegal extraction of wood; slave work; infantile prostitution; corruption. The screenplay and the shootings uses the improvisations of the gifted actor Paulo César Peréio, who interacts with the locals, blending reality with fiction in a very different genre, a sort of "fictional documentary" (later called docudrama). The story is so realistic that it seems that the amateurish Edna de Cássia is really a young prostitute, abused along the shootings. But the director and crew claim that she was really acting. The title is a great joke, playing with words in Portuguese: "Iracema" is a famous 1865 tragic romance of José de Alencar, actually an anagram of the word "America", and tells the story of the Indian Iracema that falls in love for the Caucasian Portuguese Martim. "Transamazônica" is the name of the road, meaning "Trans" + "Amazonas" (Amazon); however, the title is "Transa" (meaning shag) + "Amazonas" (Amazon). My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "Iracema Uma Transa Amazônica" ("Iracema An Amazonic Shag")
"Iracema Uma Transa Amazônica" is an amazing film that discloses the truth about the development of Amazonas, reason why the censorship of the dictatorship has not allowed its exhibition in the movie theaters for many years. In the 70's, the Brazilian military dictatorship opened the longest Brazilian highway though the Amazon forest and the official speech was that this road would bring development to the area settling landless peasants. However, what this movie denounces is the beginning of the announced ecological disaster through the uncontrolled burning of the forest and illegal extraction of wood; slave work; infantile prostitution; corruption. The screenplay and the shootings uses the improvisations of the gifted actor Paulo César Peréio, who interacts with the locals, blending reality with fiction in a very different genre, a sort of "fictional documentary" (later called docudrama). The story is so realistic that it seems that the amateurish Edna de Cássia is really a young prostitute, abused along the shootings. But the director and crew claim that she was really acting. The title is a great joke, playing with words in Portuguese: "Iracema" is a famous 1865 tragic romance of José de Alencar, actually an anagram of the word "America", and tells the story of the Indian Iracema that falls in love for the Caucasian Portuguese Martim. "Transamazônica" is the name of the road, meaning "Trans" + "Amazonas" (Amazon); however, the title is "Transa" (meaning shag) + "Amazonas" (Amazon). My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "Iracema Uma Transa Amazônica" ("Iracema An Amazonic Shag")