Rotas de fuga da aridez: o sertão cinemático de Lírio Ferreira

Abstract

This work analyzes the thematic and aesthetic diversity of Pernambuco’s cinema that emerged from the 1990s onwards, focusing on the films Baile Perfumado (1996), Árido Movie (2005) and Acqua Movie (2019), directed by Lírio Ferreira. From the geographic perspective, the study investigates how narratives reframe the semi-arid region, exploring its symbolic, affective, and temporal dimensions through specific paths. These paths are referred to as escape routes, where the study reveals how the films offer multifaceted visions of the semiarid, addressing cultural, historical, and environmental issues. By connecting Cinema and Geography, the research challenges stereotypes, proposing the semi-arid as a complex narrative space, where metathemes present routes that expand interpretations and renew the imaginary of the region. The study explores aspects such as the construction of discourse and the cinematic semi-arid landscape, the challenge to traditional conceptions, and the contribution of visual narratives to a deeper geographical understanding of Brazil’s Northeast. For this purpose, the theoretical foundation employs various concepts and categories to examine cinema as a geographic device. Authors like Deleuze (2007) and Aumont (1994) discuss paradigms of films as means for constructing socio-spatial narratives and representations of reality. Cinema is also seen as a tool for understanding geographies (Claval, 2001; Costa, 2011; Gomes & Ribeiro, 2013) and as a relational space reflecting socio-spatial dynamic (Harvey, 2004, 2015). Landscape is analyzed as a cultural representation (Cosgrove, 1998), linked to social practices and subjective perceptions (Berque, 1998; Barbosa, 1999). In Brazil, cinema represents a form of resistance and cultural reinterpretation, especially in the Northeast and the semi-arid (Albuquerque Jr., 1999). Methodologically, representations are investigated through film analysis, where the films are initially deconstructed by describing the shots, sequences, frames, scenes, angles, sounds, and compositions. Subsequently, they are reconstructed based on an understanding of the deconstructed elements, integrating them into an approach that considers the interaction between cinematic and geographic spaces, examining landscapes, locations, narrative structures, discourses, and camera movements. As a result, we observe that the filmmaker transforms the northeastern semi-arid into a dynamic and vibrant universe of possibilities, subverting traditional images of poverty and desolation. His films reveal a constantly transforming landscape, where escape routes from aridity, with their harshness and fissures, function as mirrors of the lives and emotions intertwined within. Through visual poetics, Ferreira configures the landscape as a reflection of human experiences, inviting the audience to rethink the semi-arid not as a place of scarcity but as a territory of potential. The cinematic narratives indicate that the aridity of the semi-arid region emerges as a creative field and a dynamic narrative space. Throughout the journeys of characters like Benjamin Abrahão, Jonas, Cícero, and Duda, the semi-arid does not dissolve but reinvents itself, maintaining its identity while embodying an ambiguity between ruptures and continuities. The semi-arid, deeply connected to its historical roots, has emerged as a fertile space where aridity enhances resilience and transformative capacity, highlighting fundamental dynamics for the uniqueness of the region and its inhabitants.