Couro de Gato

In Rio de Janeiro, near to the Carnival, a group of boys from the slums in the hills chase cats to sell them to make a small percussion drum called "tamborim".

When I was a boy in the 60's, the strays cats simply vanished from Rio de Janeiro a couple of days before Carnival. The explanation was that poor people hunted them to sell the leather for manufacturing a percussion instrument called "tamborim", and the flesh to be sold by street vendors in small barbecues as if they were cow or ox meat. Joaquim Pedro de Andrade made this short visibly inspired by "Rio 40 Graus" picturing this reality through a group of boys that organizes a "chase to the cats" to raise some money. The story shows the economical situation superseding the sorrow or love the boy might feel for the animal, showing an "upper class cat" having the same fate of the stray cats, in spite of the boy have some feelings for it. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Couro de Gato" ("Cat's Leather")

One of the very best movies from Cinema Novo movment is a short film: this amazing piece by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, brilliantly directed, filmed and acted. Its amazing cinematograghy explores beauties and contrasts of Rio de Janeiro. Actors go well and the impressive performance of the young boys from slums must be praised. It iszlso nice to see Domingos Oliveira, who was assistant of Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, also acting in the role of a waiter. Couro de Gato is delicate and fierce at once, showing how much lives worth very differently in this unequal society. The boys hunt cats for selling them to be killed and transformed in musical instruments. On thenother hand, the boys are hunted by the society, which loves cats and have bad feelings about the poor, such as indifference, hatred... and fear. Everything is shown in a very poetic, sad, and sometimes even funny way, always with a fantastic pace, either when there is a fast chase or when a boy and a cat share the little they have.

Portrait of sad reality. About poverty, choices, survive, emotions, deep reality. Boys and cats and Carnival. And fragments from a world who seems very easy to define only at the first sigh. Memories about City of God , samba and runs. And the last scene, one of the most touching from cinematography. Short, a film to must see. For understand a hidded reality who remains alive across more than a half of century.

First off, the film's score is a thoroughly charming slice of early 1960s samba. There are hints of Tom Jobim at certain points. (is that "Desafinado" playing in the scenes with the rich woman?)

The film is available on YouTube and I recommend it to all. If you have ever struggled with the treatment of animals in impoverished countries and areas, this film may spur more thoughts and discussions of those issues. The descriptions elsewhere on this page are all you need to be able to watch it, even if, like me, you do not speak Portuguese. The film addresses how we treat the less fortunate humans, and how we treat animals.

If you've seen City of God (2002), it was interesting/sad to think about how long those slums have been there in Rio, as they looked almost exactly the same in Couro de Gato as they do nearly 40 years later.

I have a feeling it will stick with me for some time.