JARDIM DE GUERRA
(WAR GARDEN)
dir. Neville de Almeida, 1967
Brazil. 92 mins.
In Brazilian Portuguese with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, MARCH 16 - 1 PM followed by a discussion with Neville de Almeida
ONE SCREENING ONLY!

Set in Rio de Janeiro under the military dictatorship in the 1960s, JARDIM DE GUERRA follows a young leftist Edson and his love interest, aspiring filmmaker Maria, played by Joel Barcellos and Maria do Rosário, respectively. The plot takes a dark turn when Edson, in an attempt to raise fast money for Maria’s film, is baselessly arrested and tortured for his suspected involvement in a plot to overthrow the regime. Ironically, JARDIM's seditious content led to its interception by the real Brazilian military government, which used the infamous 1968 Ato Institucional Número Cinco \\\\[Institutional Act Number Five\\\\] to censor the press, music, film, theater, and television for inflammatory political and moral content. JARDIM was barred from public screenings and some scenes were destroyed or lost forever.

The film showcases D’Almeida’s signature style as an auteur: he breaks the fourth wall of his fictional narratives with shots of political propaganda and photographs to communicate subversive (and ironic) ideological concepts to the audience. These elements reportedly impressed Oiticica, who met D'Almeida at a private screening of JARDIM DE GUERRA in Brazil, initiating the duo’s artistic relationship. The scenes on view here showcase D’Almeida’s radical political commentary, with his ideas and imagery of Latin America, war, race, and drugs foreshadowing his later collaboration with Oiticica on the Cosmococas.