From the literary narration to the movies’ screens: layers of allegorical sense in A guerra dos pelados (Sylvio Back, 1971)

Abstract

In 1971, the movie A guerra dos pelados, directed by Sylvio Back, was released. Its historical subject was based on the Campanha do
Contestado, an armed conflict over some land which happened in the South of Brazil between 1912 and 1916. However, the film script was adapted from the novel written by Guido Wilmar Sassi, published in 1964. Despite the fact that the historical event was conducted as its main theme, the film also contains fictitious characters which were adapted to cinematographic language by Sylvio Back. Among the fictitious characters are Nenê and Zeferina, whose progress through life takes and guides a prominent emblematic meaning in the film as well as in History. This article’s goal is to investigate which narrative function these fictitious characters hold in a historical plot. The objective is to propose some interpretations for the presence of visual and verbal
signs, which are part of those characters in the film plot, and analyze them in their relation with three different contexts. First, verifying the meanings of Nenê and Zeferina’s relationship on the film. Second, interpreting them as representative symbols of the director’s vision focused on general matters (social, economical and ideological), which appeared in cultural debates of the period after the second world war. And then, explaining the meaning that this couple’s path has had as a political allegory inserted in the historical moment in which the film was produced – the tough years of military regimen in Brazil.