São Paulo – The Lebanese living in Tyre, a city approximately 80 kilometres south of Beirut (capital), will be able to watch the Brazilian film Two Sons of Francisco, which won four prizes at Cinema Brazil Grand Prize and tells the story of singers Zezé di Camargo and Luciano. The film, which has been subtitled in Arabic, will be shown on December 2nd at 05:00 pm, as part of the Typro Cultural Forum.
The action is part of a strategy of the Brazilian embassy in Beirut to decentralize cultural activities. According to minister counsellor Roberto Medeiros, aside from cultural actions in Beirut, the embassy has been promoting events in cities such as Ghazze (a village that houses the largest community of Brazilian origin in Lebanon), Byblos, Tripoli, Zahle, Batroun, among others. "We are considering promoting the next event in Baalbeck," claimed Medeiros.
According to him, the Two Sons of Francisco DVD is part of the embassy’s media library. The plot of the feature film, directed by Breno Silveira in 2005, is based around the trajectory of Brazilian country music duo Zézé di Camargo and Luciano, who left the state of Goiás as children to try a career in singing. The Arabic subtitling, according to Medeiros, aims to reach out to the largest audience possible.
Prior to the film’s screening, the embassy will offer, as usual, a cocktail party including typical Brazilian snacks and sweets and guaraná-flavoured soft drinks. The party is meant to promote Brazilian cuisine in Lebanon.
In the last two months, the embassy screened the film Central do Brasil (Central Station), directed by Walter Salles, in Ghazze, in the Bekaa Valley. The feature film was projected at the central square of the village of Ghazze, where the Lebanese also watched a Brazilian music performance featuring singer Naima Yazbek and her band, in addition to capoeira and maculelê dance performances by the Filhos de Bimba group. The Brazilian evening was attended by a 1,000-strong crowd.
According to information supplied by the embassy, the program is part of a strategy for promoting the teaching of Brazilian language in Lebanon. Another Brazilian film shown recently in Lebanon was Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad), directed by José Padilha. The film was shown in Beirut, at the Empire Sofil theatre, as part of the Ibero-American Film Week to a sold-out audience of 260.
Out of the nine films shown at the Film Week, made in countries such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Spain, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, the Brazilian screening attracted the largest crowd, according to the embassy.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
