Barren Lives (Vidas Secas) is based on a classic Brazilian novel of the same name. This highly-praised film, adapted and directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos was a pinnacle of Brazil’s “New Wave Cinema” — an attempt at social relevance and upheaval by filmmakers of the 60s.
The film — similar to The Grapes of Wrath — is not a lighthearted one. Shot documentary-style in black-and-white, it concerns the plight of an extremely poor family, and the lengths to which they must go in order to survive. It’s a stark picture of the poverty which was (and still is) present in north-eastern Brazil. Dos Santos is clearly angry about social injustice, and his film attacks it brutally, pulling no punches.
Though it’s not necessarily a laugh-fest, Barren Lives is a must for any serious cinephile. What else but high art could inspire sentences like this? “The seminal film of the [Brazilian new wave] movement is as naturalistic and heart wrenchingly earnest as any Vittorio De Sica weepie” (Aaron Hillis, Premiere), or: “With its telling compositions, subjective shots, and atomized overexposed lighting, [Barren Lives] now seems relentlessly subjective, keyed to the unarticulated anger of a people aware of its exploitation yet politically too embryonic to consider revolt” (Fernando F. Croce, Slant)?!
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