New Brazilian Film premieres at Cannes with film crew’s protest over Rousseff’s Removal
View Gallery
3 Photos
The screening of the Brazilian film “Aquarius” at the Cannes Film Festival was preceded on Tuesday by a protest by the film team against what they called a “coup d’etat” in their homeland.
The Brazilian Senate voted last week to suspend elected President Dilma Rousseff for up to 180 days as senators decide whether she should be permanently removed over alleged accounting irregularities.
“Brazil is experiencing a coup d’etat” and “Brazil is no longer a democracy” were slogans appearing on signs that the film’s cast held up before reporters and cameramen on the red carpet before the showing.
“Aquarius” is a domestic drama that has been well received by critics and is one of 21 films competing for the Palme d’Or at the world’s most important movie festival.
Film director Kleber Mendonça Filho, and the movie’s star, Sonia Braga, participated in the protest, which lasted almost right up to the start of the screening.
The film is one of the most highly anticipated works by critics at the festival, thanks to the success of another work by the director – “O som ao redor” – and the return to the silver screen, at age 65, of Braga, who was launched to stardom for her 1976 role in “Doña Flor and her Two Husbands.”
