Saudade do Futuro

Brazil’s São Paulo is a remarkable city. It is bursting at the seams, effervescing with music and its streets are filled with poets. It doesn’t matter who you talk to – an ordinary cleaner or a journalist, the director of an art gallery or a taxi-driver, immigrants from the country or local politicians. This megalopolis with its sixteen million inhabitants is outgrowing New York; it means something different for each of them because it has become their home. We watch this city from the tops of sky-scrapers and from the depths of the metro system, we hear its rhythmical songs which tell of human happiness and pain. We visit local dance halls where couples undulate to intoxicating erotic music and we listen to what the Nordestinos have to say. This is the name for people who come from the North to find happiness or at least a job. ,Saudade‘ is a Portuguese word which loses in translation – it signifies a combination of desire, tenderness, sweetness, nostalgia, pleasure and sorrow... (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)