Carlos Diegues’ Bye Bye Brazil spoke to me on a very basic level. At its core, it is a road movie. It begins when a traveling sideshow visits a small town in the hopes of making some money. The show consists of a “Gypsy Lord” magician, an exotic dancer named Salomé, and Swallow, a mute strongman. A local accordion player is mesmerized by Salomé and begs to travel with them along with his very pregnant wife. So begins a long, strange journey through Brazil. At its emotional center is the love triangle between Salomé, the accordion player, and his wife Dasdô. The accordion player lusts after Salomé, completely oblivious to Dasdô and her plight. A key moment of the film occurs when Salomé sleeps with the accordion player while Dasdô sits nearby powerless to do anything. However, when the Gypsy Lord loses everything in a bet, the accordion player must make a terrible choice: force Dasdô into prostitution or leave the sideshow and his beloved Salomé. Two things really strike me about Bye Bye Brazil. First, it is a fascinating portrayal of a nation in the throes of modernization. After a show gets abysmal attendance in a town that had always proved a reliable moneymaker, the Gypsy Lord discovers that the townsfolk have all been hypnotized by a “public television” provided by local politicians. New roads and communities spring up, blocking the sideshow’s travels. At one point they even fall in with a group of Indians seeking a new place to live. As Brazil moves into the future, the sideshow discovers that they are being left behind. Second, the portrayal of women in Bye Bye Brazil is discomforting, to say the least. There are exactly two kinds of women in the film, represented by Salomé (the sex worker; the temptress; the gold-digger) and Dasdô (the subservient, unquestioning wife; suffering mother). But despite its gender politics, Bye Bye Brazil remains a moving and wonderful piece of Brazilian cinema.
8/10
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