Sound of Brazil

Colour, 35mm
Germany, Brazil, Finland, 2002, 105 min
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

A musical journey through Brazil in the company of Finnish filmmaker Mika Kaurismäki. This documentary is both a record of the multifarious, multi-cultural rhythms of Brazilian music as well as a testimony to Kaurismäki’s private passion. During a 4,000-kilometre journey of discovery across a country he has got to know well over the past decade, Kaurismäki meets musicians, singers and dancers who represent a wide variety of different styles. Kaurismäki allows Brazil’s rich musical tradition to speak for itself – in stories told by the local people, in wonderfully contradictory styles of music and in song lyrics. Music is an inherent part of everyday life in Brazil and is always used as a spontaneous expression of emotions. As Kaurismäki comments: “Most people outside Brazil are only familiar with rhythms such as the bossa nova or samba, but there is so much more to discover – such as the maracatú, the frevo, the coco, the forró, the embolada and much else besides” .

About the director

Mika Kaurismäki (1955, Orimattila, Finland). From 1977-1981, he visited the Munich Film School. Together with his brother Aki Kaurismäki he founded the film production company Villealfa, where he started to shoot his own films, producing most of them himself. For the past ten years he has been living mainly in Rio de Janeiro where he runs a club on the Copacabana beach. In 1995 Karlovy Vary screened his retrospective. Filmography: The Liar (short, 1980), Jackpot 2 (short, 1981), The Saimaa Gesture (co-directed with Aki Kaurisimäki, 1981), The Worthless (1982), The Clan: Tale of the Frogs (1984), Rosso (1986), Helsinki Napoli All Night Long (1987), Nightwork (TV-film, 1988), Cha Cha Cha (1989), Paper Star (1989), Amazon (1990), Zombie and the Ghost Train (1991), The Last Border (1993) and Tigrero (1994), Condition Red (1995), L.A. Without a Map (1998), Higway Society (2000).