Câmera na terra árida: sertão, cinema e imaginário

Abstract

The Sertão and the Northeast are two interwoven elements: on one hand, the imaginary of a monolithic region; on the other, the image of an inhospitable place, trapped in its past and crystallized in time. This idealized conception has contributed to the construction of a social imaginary strongly shaped by a regional identity, with cinema serving as one of its primary forms of expression. This study analyzes three cinematic works: Vidas Secas (1962), by Nelson Pereira dos Santos; Baile Perfumado (1996), by Lírio Ferreira and Paulo Caldas; and Bacurau (2019), by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles. Each of these productions constructs a social imaginary of the Northeastern sertão, here understood as follows: the social imaginary of hunger, represented by Vidas Secas (1962); the historical social imaginary, expressed in Baile Perfumado (1996); and the political social imaginary, developed in Bacurau (2019). These symbolic constructions correspond to their respective social and cinematic contexts, yet they are also aesthetically and sociologically connected, as they mobilize timeless issues such as social inequalities, land conflicts, state absence, cangaço (banditry), messianism, among other fundamental aspects of the sertanejo imaginary. The methodology adopted is based on the decomposition and recomposition of scenes, combined with the technique of shot breakdown (decupagem), allowing for a detailed and in-depth analysis of the films, thus enhancing both interpretative density and investigative scope.