Monday, November 18, 2013

Corda Bamba

I watched this movie Corda Bamba (in Portuguese with English subtitles), directed by Eduardo Goldenstein, in the Brazilian Film Festival 2013 in Luxembourg. I really loved the movie. The plot of the movie is pretty simple. But the making of the movie and the imagery is amazing. The story revolves around the struggle and unhappiness of a little girl to overcome a memory lapse from her past.

Corda Bamba is a story of a little girl, Maria who was born and bought up in a small circus. Under forced circumstances, she comes to live with her grandmother in a city. But, all her life and memories were woven around the circus. Maria gently rejects the luxurious lifestyle arranged by her grandmother and prefers to live the way she lived back at the circus. She sets up a camping tent inside the bedroom and continues to sleep inside it. A few scenes between her and the little boy with whom she shares the room were cute. During the day, mostly she spends her time looking out of the window. And that is her only solace.

Every night, she walks on an imaginary tightrope tied from her window (reality) to the other facing window (fantasy). On the other side, she perceives her subconscious or the lapsed memories. This theme has been extraordinarily portrayed as a dark corridor with colorful doors. Behind each colored door is a past memory. The memories are about her parents, how her rich grandma didn’t want her mother to marry a man, her father from circus. But they got married and Maria was born. Maria was raised in the circus and she too learns to walk the tightrope like her parents. One instance, when her parents walked the tightrope without safety nets is the tragic moment of her life where she lost her parents. This is her lapsed memory she finds behind the last door.

Maria was so much attached to the circus and the past. But when she remembered the lapsed tragic moment, she finally gathers the courage and strength to be able to move forward.

Corda Bamba is an excellent film and for those who are interested in psychological insights. The grief and happiness among the human minds is allegorically depicted through the image of a sensitive child. 



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