What is the significance in hanging the shirt on the washing line & waiting until the blood turns yellow before carrying out a revenge killing? Is it some sort of tradition or just peculiar to the film?
Also the fact that the UK version of the film only runs for 92 minutes (as opposed to the 105 original minutes running time that is) what exactly are we poor deprived Brits actually missing that was cut from the original film?!
I am a Brazilian and never heard about this supposed tradition. I gather this was made only for dramatic purposes. Furthermore, I am a biologist, and blood stains do not yellow, they get rust dark with the passage of time. Hemorrhages under the skin do get yellow, because of a biochemical transformation into a different iron pigment.
Finally, there is another strange incoherence in a major concept for this picture. The ambiance is typical Northeast semi-arid hinterland (called "caatinga"), where no sugarcane would ever be planted, because there is not enough rain (the images show a drought period, with all plants tinder dry except for cactuses). In the Northeast, sugarcane is produced along the coast ("zona da mata"), only. Caatinga peasants live from cattle or beans, because they resist better to droughts.
Nevertheless, this picture is Salles's best, and of the best Brazilian films ever. Santoro is a young actor, but with a fantastic interpretation.
I agree with the sugar-cane restrictions. It was filmed in the northwest of Bahia State, there is no sugarcane there, for sure. Not only because of the water, but also the soil is not adequate for this land use. Peasants there in 1910 produced beans, had goats. Even cattle like that would be complex to handle in that condition. Near the end it is shown a moment when the father slices a cactus, known as "palma", that works as emergencial reserve of water during the drought.
But the sugarcane may explain how could Tonio reach the sea. If he was in a real sucarcane region, he would be less than 100Km from the sea, moving east, following the sunrising.
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I gather this was made only for dramatic purposes.Very interesting hearing a bio-medical view on this one. I'm sure the film suggests that if left out in the sun long enough, the blood stain yellows.
Finally, there is another strange incoherence in a major concept for this picture. The ambiance is typical Northeast semi-arid hinterland (called "caatinga"), where no sugarcane would ever be planted, because there is not enough rain.Having grown up in and amongst some of the sugar cane growing areas of Australia, I can attest to the fact that sugar cane needs a tropical climate with plenty of rain to thrive and is indeed normally grown near the coast, whilst the setting of this movie seemed to be in more arid inland regions. Then to confound us more at the end Tonho seems to walk to the beach any way carrying nothing more than the clothes he stood in. share
I read "Broken April" by Ismail Kadare. Therein he describes that when the blood on the shirt is turning into yellow (and it does when time goes on) the time has gome to do the vengence. It means the dead one is going angry. It is an Albanian tradition.
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Indeed, the movie can be quite confusing. I`m from the northeast of Beazil and I never heard about this yellow blood thing, so my guess is as good as yours. What I understood from the movie, is that it takes some time for the blood to turn yello, and when it does, the killing is liberated.
Somebody also commented about the sea, that was quite strange for me too. The sea is VERY far way from the deep areas of the northeast. So, the movie is suposed to be on the deep northeast, or rodrigo santoro travalled for DAYS until he could reach the sea.
- He moves his lips when he reads. What does that tell you about him?
Is Albanian tradition of vendetta! The family keeps their killed man shirt in the yard and it beckons them to not forget to kill the one that killed him. Adaptation of this film was taken verbatim from the social laws in Albania and set in Brazil
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