(35 mm, 13 min, cor, 1988) Thirty-eight years after the 1950 World Cup, a man goes back in time in order to prevent the goal that defeated Brazil, destroyed his childhood dreams and finished the carrier of goalkeeper Barbosa.

Photo by Sérgio Amon: Antônio Fagundes

Director: Jorge Furtado and Ana Luiza Azevedo

Written by: Jorge Furtado, Ana Luiza Azevedo and Giba Assis Brasil
Cinematographer: Sérgio Amon
Art Director: Fiapo Barth
Music by: Geraldo Flach
Production Coordinator: Nora Goulart and Gisele Hiltl
Editor: Giba Assis Brasil
Assistant Director: Betty Perrenoud

A Casa de Cinema PoA Production

Main Cast:
Antônio Fagundes (the traveller)
Pedro Santos (the assistant)
Zé Vitor Castiel (the doorkeeper)
Ariel Nehring (the boy)
Abel Borba (the father) 

FULL CAST AND CREW

Prizes

• 16th Gramado Film Festival, 1988:
  Best Editing, Best Editing of Regional Film, Best Screenplay of Regional Film.
• 21st Brasilia Film Festival, 1988:
  Best Screenplay.
• 11th Guarnicê of Cine-Video, São Luis, 1988:
  Best Original Story, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Official Jury Award.
• 10th Latinoamerican Film Festival, Havana, Cuba, 1988:
  Best Fiction Short Film.

 
Reviews

"Underpinned by Sérgio Amon's 'illuminated' photography, BARBOSA has a fantastic original story. Fiapo Barth's art direction brings the Rio de Janeiro of 1950 to the Porto Alegre of 1988, and it is convincing. A challenge met by the crew, and by the directors. The will to change the course of History is present there. Would Brazil be different with a victory of the Brazilian team in the 1950 World Cup?"
(Glênio Póvoas, DIÁRIO DO SUL, Porto Alegre, 25-26/06/88)

"The art of movement and the art of heroes, solitary and ritualistic at the same time, film and football never came together in such a full dimension as in GARRINCHA ALEGRIA DO POVO and in BARBOSA. (...) Capable of transporting the spectator to the heart of that anguish, reviving the emotion of a defeat suffered 40 years ago, BARBOSA is as much a work of its time as was Joaquim Pedro's GARRINCHA. BARBOSA is born out of the failure of utopia (the narrator/character says 'that defeat was the sign that nothing would turn out right in this country'). Made at a time in Brazil, when not even football is doing well (...), this short symptomatically rescues an knot in our history which may well have been our only moment as a nation."
(David França Mendes, TABU, Rio de Janeiro, September/88)

"BARBOSA is born a classic. Inspired in the book ANATOMIA DE UMA DERROTA / ANATOMY OF A DEFEAT, where Paulo Perdigão purged himself of the Brazilian defeat in the 1950 World Cup, they created a chilling plot. What if a grown up man, tortured since childhood by the failure he had witnessed in Maracanã Stadium, managed to go back to the past to prevent Ghiggia from scoring that fateful goal? The outcome of this cathartic illusion is disturbing, to say the least."
(Amir Labaki, FOLHA DE SÃO PAULO, 19/09/88)

"The historical scene in black and white shows Brazilian goalkeeper Barbosa rising to his feet in desolation after what sports commentators considered his failure. Tragedy. (...) The fatal moment and its consequences in the mind of the goalkeeper is the great theme, made into a moving short film (...) The surprising photography marks the beats of the heart, in black and white and in color. A consistent and transparent short. A small masterpiece."
(Rubens Araújo, JORNAL DE BRASÍLIA, 28/10/88)

"One of the most communicative and original Brazilian shorts in recent times. It is a film where everything works to perfection, from screenplay to cast. Unforgettable also are the impeccable editing, the surprising use of video and the integration of fiction and documentary."
(Sérgio Bazi, CORREIO BRASILIENSE, Brasília, 28/10/88)

23/06/1988