(The Killing machine)
(16 mm, 16 min, color, 1994)
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Canudos was a little village in the impoverished
Brazilian Northeast, founded by messianic leader Antônio Conselheiro
and massacred to the death of the last of its 30 thousand inhabitants by
a powerful army on October 5th 1897. The film tells the story of the Canudos
massacre through the story of an English cannon, nicknamed “MATADEIRA"
(Killer) by the locals, and which was transported across the Northeastern
back country by twenty-one yokes of oxen in order to shoot one single shot.
PHOTO
by Alex Sernambi: |
Director: Jorge Furtado
Executive
Producer: Nora Goulart
Written
by: Jorge Furtado
Cinematographer:
Alex
Sernambi
Art Directors:
Fiapo
Barth and Gaspar Martins
Music by:
Leo
Henkin
Production
Coordinator: Sandro Dreyer
Editor:
Giba Assis Brasil
Assistant
Director: Dainara Toffoli
A Casa de Cinema PoA Production
Main Cast:
Pedro Cardoso
(Professor, Prudente de Morais,
/ Peasant,
Antônio Conselheiro, Reverend)
Carlos Cunha
Filho (male narration)
Lisa Becker
(female narration)
Prizes
22nd
Gramado Film Festival, 1994:
Special Prize
to the Art Direction, Best Direction of Regional Film, Best Cinematography
of Regional Film.
11th
Rio-Cine Festival, Rio de Janeiro, 1994:
Best Actor
(Pedro Cardoso), Prize for Cinematographic Language Achievement
Reviews
"The new short by Furtado is structured like a collage, with a combination
of scenes played by actors, animation, period photos and extracts of recent
documentaries. The tone is deliberately extreme: the sets are ultra-fake,
the colors, always bright, the histrionic acting – led by the charismatic
Pedro Cardoso, who plays several roles. A MATADEIRA/ THE KILLING MACHINE
takes a fresh look at the main interpretations of the Canudos episode."
(Amir Labaki,
Folha de São Paulo)
"THE KILLING MACHINE honorably follows in the line of work developed by
Jorge Furtado in ISLAND OF FLOWERS and THIS IS NOT YOUR LIFE. Brilliantly
realized, the film offers us a version of the end of Canudos that is both
tragic and mocking, and finds a possible relation between the past and
the present Brazilian reality.
(Tuio Becker,
Zero Hora, 18/08/94)
"This is outstanding work by Jorge Furtado. In Euclides da Cunha’s 'Os
Sertões', he found the story of the Matadeira (the Killing Machine),
the cannon the Brazilian army bought from German manufacturers Krupp to
eliminate the followers of Conselheiro. Making use of fictional resources,
in the line of the fake documentary that has brought him recognition, and
animation (clay figures by Mestre Vitalino symbolize the struggle of the
Northeastern peasant against the military), Furtado has made a remarkable
film, but it could well have done without the impertinent jokes."
(Maria do Rosário
Caetano, Jornal de Brasília, 05/10/97)
Available versions
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 |
 |
 |
| 16mm in portuguese |
16mm with german subtitles |
DVD with multlingual subtitles ("Curtas da Casa") |
VHS in portuguese ("Historias Reais") |
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