‘Temporary Action’: ‘Things we thought were warnings happened in real life,’ says Lazaro Ramos | movie theater

Police forces are stepping in to make sure that no citizen with “concentrated melanin,” as blacks are called, remains in the country. This is the guideline for Lazaro Ramos’ “Temporary Mededa”, which opens Thursday (14) in cinemas.

Inspired by the play “Namibia, No!” Directed by Aldri Anunciação, the film presents the struggle against racism in a script that brings tension, pain, drama and irony touches. And the director warns you: You have to watch it even after the credits.

“This film is a mixture of genres and tells us that it is possible to talk about these very important issues, such as the struggle against racism, our identity, and also through humor, moving into action, adventure, then going into drama. Because it reaches the sensitivity of the viewer from a different place ‘ says Lazaro.

The plot features Antonio (Alfred Enoch), a black rights activist lawyer, his wife, Capito (Tice Araujo), a doctor at a large hospital, and Andre (Sio George), his cousin and journalist who is also involved in the struggle against racism.

Once the action is carried out, the trio attempt to evade the city’s police and resistance.

“Capitu adapted to a very white, elite environment, which was not welcoming,” Taís says. “She chose not to talk about uncomfortable issues,” he says. “Racism is an annoying topic for Brazilians, so it’s easy to pretend it isn’t there to get to certain places.”

According to Taís, it is interesting how the character gains strength and identity during the film. “Racial literacy has been lacking and he’s been gaining it from the moment you see it: Either you take this issue seriously and stand up for yourself, or you die, you’ll lose your freedom, you’ll be sent to a place you didn’t choose,” she says.

“It’s about freedom, it’s about the issue of black women who are rising socially and often having to let go of blackness to feel a sense of belonging.”

The most ridiculous discourses appear with Seu Jorge’s character and his clash with Isabel (Adriana Esteves), a government employee responsible for putting into effect a procedure to expel Brazilians, and with racist neighbor Dona Izildinha (Renata Sorrah).

There are also scenes very similar to those seen in the country’s recent history, which produce good insights from the text. “These comedic vignettes are so important to telling a dramatic and heavy story. If you don’t have them, we can’t see them, and they’re hard to bear,” Tice says.

“People are so involved in the story, because it’s both entertainment, and it’s relevant. It’s great to get messages from people, sometimes two days later, saying they haven’t stopped thinking about the movie,” Lazaro says.

The Temporary Action project began as a movie in 2012 and was shot in 2019. “When we started writing the script, it was all an exercise in creating a dystopian story, thinking about situations we wouldn’t want to see happen in Brazil,” the director recalls.

“Time passed,” he says. “A lot of things that we thought were alerts happened in real life.”

“Reality needs rethinking. The mirror has reached our faces, and it is now up to us to understand what that will do.”

For him, despite being a dystopia, the film should be an opportunity to review the history of Brazil. “We had years of enslavement and a paper was signed after a lot of struggle by black people to liberate themselves,” he says.

“After signing, people are thrown into the street, without work, without a livelihood, without a home. Capoeira was soon decriminalized, the practice of religion was decriminalized. And this eviction is already in place, we suffer the consequences of that day and I don’t know if people are on aware of that.”

The film, he said, opens this window, so that the audience can see the reality of everyday life. For this, he confirms the participation of guru Deva Guimarães in the feature.

She became known in 2017, when she stood out among the Lázaro debate audience and journalist Joanna Gorjau Henriques, at FLIP that year, to make a statement about the racism she experienced when she was young.

“They exist not just for admiration and for what we live through. It’s to go back and open the window of that 13-minute testimony, and it’s so powerful and it’s part of the history of Brazil. The film is full of these windows.”

In addition to budget challenges, screenwriter changes and the pandemic, more bureaucratic reasons have delayed the feature’s release.

“One member of the government called for a boycott of the film without watching it, saying it was to speak ill of the government,” he adds. Then, he says, he needed a subscription to change distributors, which took a year.

“It only came about when we went to explain to the public why we were delaying the launch, and the press reported that the bureaucracy is practicing censorship as well,” Lazaro says.