Cinema
Gaijin: Roads to Freedom
Gaijin, os caminhos da liberdade
Tizuka Yamasaki · 1980
Synopsis
In Japan, in 1908, poverty pushes people to emigrate; as the company accepts only families that include a couple, Titoe, sixteen, marries Yamada, whom she has just met. After fifty-two days at sea, they arrive at the fazenda Santa Rosa, a coffee plantation in the State of São Paulo. The foreman wears the settlers out, the owners steal their wages and get them into debt, and Titoe suffers the violence of the Brazilians as well as that of her husband; only Tonho, the accountant, treats them with respect.
Context
The first feature film of its director, who drew on the history of her own family for it, the film was written with Jorge Durán, photographed by Edgar Moura and scored by John Neschling; produced by Ponto Filmes, it was distributed by Embrafilme and presented at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1980. The Japanese roles are played by Japanese actors or actors of Japanese descent, among them Kyoko Tsukamoto, whom the director kept away from Brazil and its language, according to the Berkeley film archive. The film is dedicated to all those who had to leave their land.
Who it is for
A film of one hundred and twelve minutes, in Portuguese and Japanese, narrated by its young heroine, Titoe.
Prizes and reception
Awarded at the Gramado festival and shown at Cannes and Berlin, according to Portal Tela; a sequel was shot twenty-five years later.
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