A Social Revolution

In 1937, the modernist writer Oswald de Andrade finished a play revolving around a greedy Brazilian entrepreneur and the country’s connection with foreign capital in the wake of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. But owing to its emergence in the midst of a dictatorship and its examination of the nation’s ills, it was not performed for a further three decades. In 1967, Teatro Oficina, a radical theatre company, finally brought the work to the stage. And while the play’s three acts were filmed and intended for release, the head of the theatre was arrested and sent into exile, smuggling the film negatives to Europe and Mozambique along with him. With the involvement of filmmaker Noilton Nunes and the addition of footage from protests, happenings and the filmmakers’ own home videos, O Rei da Vela [The King of the Candle] finally made its screen debut in 1983.

This programme presents the UK premiere of this long-repressed film alongside Brazilian visual artist Rubens Gerchman’s Triunfo Hermético, a short film shot in Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay that also captures artists’ happenings.

Rubens Gerchman, Triunfo Hermético, Brazil 1972, 35mm transferred to digital, colour, sound, 12 min, Portuguese with English subtitles

José Celso Martinez Corrêa and Noilton Nunes, O Rei da Vela [The King of the Candle], Brazil 1982, 35mm transferred to digital, colour, sound, 162 min, Portuguese with English subtitles

Please note that The King of the Candle contains scenes of a sexual nature and is not appropriate for audience members under the age of 16