Academy winning Brazilian cinema classic, Black Orpheus (1958) by French film director Marcel Camus, will be screened at Maru a Pula School’s Audio Visual Centre by the Gaborone Film Society (GFS) on Tuesday, 27th January.
Black Orpheus is the last of the Brazilian classics that were screened during the Brazilian Film Festival by GFS. The film, which is in Spanish and Portuguese with subtitles, transfers the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to a contemporary Rio de Janeiro during carnival. A trolley driver and player, engaged to be married to a woman named Mira, plays Orpheus in the film, venerated in Greek mythology as the chief of all poets and musicians.
When Orpheus and Mira finally get their marriage licence, a clerk at the courthouse tells them the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, the maiden with whom Orpheus fell in love. Mira is stricken with jealousy assuming that Eurydice already exists in her husband’s life. Orpheus eventually meets Eurydice.
The movie is also renowned for showcasing the samba and its soundtrack by an influential bossa nova musician Antonio Carlos Jobim. GFS screens the movie on Tuesday, at 1900hrs.
The 28-year-old membership organisation screens about 50 films a year with an aim to showcase films not readily available in Botswana’s cinemas and video shops. Next month, they will commemorate Black History Month with the following contemporary African movies; The Night of Truth (Burkina Faso), Bamako (Mali), Escape From Luanda (Angola), DArAtt (Chad) and When The Leeves Broke, A Requim in Four Acts a documentary on the life of Barack Obama by an African American director of note, Spike Lee. GFS welcomes new members.
