Helena Ignez package in IFFK to widen the horizons of Brazilian films

Helena Ignez is an iconic Brazilian actress, who turned 70 recently. In the 17^th International Film Festival of Kerala, honoring Helena Ignez’s 53 year long career, seven of her most talked about films to be screened under Retrospective category. To the despair of her family, dropped out of college and enrolled in the course in Dramatic Art from the Federal University of Bahia. She joined the Bahia Theater during the time of avant-garde and worked with many maestros there. Apart from proving her talent of acting in more than 30 films and TV series, has also directed two and penned for one. Ignez created a new style of acting: debauched, extravagant, female violence. Being a prominent person of Cinema Marginal, she gave new face to female characters in Brazilian Cinema.

Helena Ignez in The Red Light Bandit (1968)

The Red Light Bandit directed by Rogerio Sganzerla, The Priest and the Girl by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Mr. Sganzerla- The Signs of Light by Joel Pizzini, Belair by Noa Bressane and Bruno Safadi duo and The Residentes by Tiago Mata Machado in which she acted. While Light in Darkness, where she was the director and Cancoes de Baal, directed with Michele Matalon are the films for screening.

The red light bandit tells the story of a Brazilian criminal, of the same name, as he uses a red flashlight to break into the houses and rapes his female victims. This films released in 1968, won four awards including the best film and best director in the 1968 Brazilia Festival of Brazilian Cinema. This was the first feature film directed by veteran Brazilian director Rogerio Sganzerla who also composed music for this film. The director par excellence was an omniscient personality in cinema. He directed 17, penned for 13 and proved his expertise in almost all other department of cinema production in his career of over 35 years.    

Helena in The Priest and the Girl (1966)

The forbidden love affair, later turned to an unconcealed passion, of a priest and an attractive girl in the town of Minas Gerais is the storyline of The Priest and the Girl, first screened in 1966. This was the first feature film of director Joaquim Pedro de Andrade which was fully recovered from its preserved negatives in 2002.

Joel Pizzini’s latest documentary film Mr. Sganzerla- The Signs of Light re-creates the ideas and images of the filmmaker Rogério Sganzerla through those symbols that are recurrent in his filmography: Orson Welles, Noel Rosa, Jimi Hendrix e Oswald de Andrade. His duo with Helena Ignez which revolutionized the mise-en-scène in the cinema is one of the main focuses of the film.

Belair is the docu-film which details the past of the Brazilian films and the production company, Belair, with the commentary of one of its founders Julio Bressane and many living legends of the industry. This is the debut directorial venture of Noa bressane, one of the directors of Belair.

The 2012 film the Residents is the story of the inmates of a building which is soon to be demolished. This film was well received as it was a throwback to the old Brazilian avant-garde films of the sixties. The director Tiago Mata Machado is a celebrated film critic, curator and award winning filmmaker of Brazil.

Helena Ignez’s directorial debut Cancoes de Baal is a musical fable co-directed by Michele Matalon. The film deals with the personal and professional life of a poet and singer, Baal. The film features the original voice of Bertolt Brecht, German play writer and theater director and the interview with Einstein. The film bagged the Critics award in Gramado Film Festival.

The life of the two notorious dons, father-son duo, where father is in jail and son is committing robbery for material gains and is worshiped by young women of the society, is the plot of the Ignez directed film Light in Darkness. This 83 minute film released in 2010 won the jury award and lot of admiration for Ignez at the Prêmio Contigo Cinema, Brazil.

Helena Ignez, who is coming to state capital, exclusively to participate and introduce her films in the International Film Festival of Kerala, will be a significant global celebrity of the festival. The package on Helena Ignez is to surely increase the number of her admirers and lovers in the state and wider the horizons of Brazilian films to a global platform.