Os Herdeiros

Ambitous in its way of portraying three decades of Brazil history and its politics through time, "Os Herdeiros" ("The Heirs") works as a real chronicle of the periods depicted while injecting plenty of fictional characters to compose its story. It's not much of an easy story to follow, specially if the viewer isn't much versed on historical facts that goes from the revolution of 1930 to the deposition of president Jango in 1964 with the military taking over the power. Cacá Diegues makes a quite interesting experiment presenting a series of small segments revolving a journalist (Sérgio Cardoso) that ascends on society by becoming a politician and then building a powerful empire that swings as each new form of administration or society change in the constant division between left and right.

When it comes to show each historical period, from Vargas to Goulart, and how each administration had its impact on people's lives, also because of the high influence of businessmen, companies and the media, the film succeeds with great accuracy and Mr. Diegues captured with precision how Brazilian society acted and thought through those trouble times. But when dealing with the fictional characters and their relations there's simply too much to follow and it end being quite confusing at parts and hard to track down everyone and understand what's their function in the story. Like Jean-Pierre Léaud playing the friend of the politician/reporter son, since his small French speeches are not translated. Because the movie covers so many things and Mr. Diegues makes of his vignettes a quite artful work it might look pretentious. It's everything but, it's just a little forced at times.

And in the constant fights of different political systems that keeps crushing society each decade goes by, where does one find a solid nation or an ideal system where all citizens are respected and have their rights guaranteed? And as each generation goes by and systems change between authoritarism to liberalism or conservatism, countless economical/social/political changes, the next generations always end up paying for something it wasn't particularly responsible. What do we heir from good in all of those scenarios such as different dictatorships, or brief moments of democracy? We keep on struggling, trying to find better ways but there's always loud oppositions here and there, and the movie, made at a critical time of the military regime, makes us analyze each period, find the positive and negative notes on each, and if you're imaginative enough you can also add all the other future decades after the movie release and see if things changed for good or if there's always some bits of history repeating. For that mental exercise it is a curious and provoking film, good enough for those who like to dig deep on historical topics. 6/10.

From 1930 to 1969, "Os Herdeiros" follows the lives of the fictional characters (Jorge Ramos (Sérgio Cardoso), Dr Almeida (Mário Lagos) etc.), all of them visibly inspired in names of the Brazilian politic history, such as Roberto Marinho, Carlos Lacerda and others, showing glances of the Brazilian political events in the last century.

The story begins in 1930, with the "Revolução de 1930" ("Revolta Tenentista") and the end of the coffee oligarchy and the government of president Washington Luis. Getulio Vargas assumes the Provisional Government of Brazil. There are ellipses, showing relevant facts in the national politic: (a) 1940, with Getulio Vargas still in the presidency. (b) 1945, with the fall of Getúlio Vargas. (c) 1949, with President General Eurico Gaspar Dutra. (d) 1954, with the suicide of Getúlio Vargas. (e) 1960, with the construction of the capital Brasília.

This movie associates also the songs with the events. Unfortunately, the story is very hermetic, confused, dated and boring, with many references of the Brazilian movement "Cinema Novo" ("New Cinema"). This film is important to students of cinema, but I did not like it. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Os Herdeiros" ("The Inheritors")