Bye Bye Brazil

Directed by Carlos Diegues
Film Movement Classics
1978
100 Minutes
France, Brazil, Argentina
Portuguese
Drama, Classics
R
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The Caravana Rolidei rolls into town with the Gypsy Lord at the mike: he does magic tricks, the erotic Salomé dances, and the mute Swallow performs feats of strength. A young accordion player is completely enamored of Salomé, and he begs to come along. The Gypsy Lord shrugs, and the accordionist and his pregnant wife, Dasdô, join the troupe. Television is their enemy as they go from the coast deep into the Amazon. Salomé lets the accordion player sleep with her once, with Dasdô’s knowledge. He’s moon-struck. Then, after Dasdô’s baby is born and financial disaster hits the troupe, the accordionist must choose between seeing his wife a prostitute and leaving the caravan. Presented in a new 4K restoration.

Director & Cast

  • Director: Carlos Diegues
  • Starring: José Wilker
  • Starring: Betty Faria
  • Starring: Fábio Jr.
  • Starring: Zaira Zambelli
  • Starring: Príncipe Nabor

Where to Watch

Trailer

Photos

Reviews

  • "''Bye Bye Brasil'' is a most reflective film, nicely acted by its small cast and beautifully though not artily photographed in some remarkable locations. It is civilized."
    Vincent Canby, The New York Times
  • "Jose Wilker is entertainingly mock-satanic as the troupe leader, [and] the scenery is wonderfully seductive in Lauro Escorel Filho’s cinematography. "
    Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
  • "Like many road movies, the film functions as a national allegory, where characters stand in for identity positions, and events that happen on screen resonate with national-historical significance."
    Jessica Scarlata, PopMatters
  • "Though his characters bemoan the changes underway, Diegues remains optimistically attuned to the bracing mishmash of races, moods, and attitudes they meet on the road. The title suggests closure, yet the film locates a nation very much still in the process of getting to know itself."
    Fernando F. Croce, Slant Magazine
  • "A sarcastic, sexy comedy...."
    David Chute, The Boston Phoenix
  • "One of the year's best films."
    Roger Ebert
  • "An exotic, earthy comedy...hums with vitality... a rare treat."
    Bruce Williamson, Playboy Magazine
  • "Carlos Diegues' Bye Bye Brasil (1979) is a film whose breathtaking beauty can not be denied. Meticulous, full of color, and charged with political innuendo this is also the work of a man with a vision."
    Svet Atanasov, DVD Talk
  • "This big-hearted road movie by the great Carlos Diegues shows much love for Brazil as a nation and as a people. It also works as a documentary of sorts, capturing the backroads of the northern regions of the country in the late ’70s. The ‘snow’ scene possibly led me to make one of my most popular short films, Recife Frio (Cold Tropics); the traveling ‘Rolidei’ troupe likely led us to the ‘pleasure truck’ with sex workers in Bacurau. Rewatched this recently, found the very last credit at the end of the picture moving, given the state Brazil is in today: Diegues dedicates the film ‘to all Brazilians of the 21st Century.’"
    Kleber Mendonça Filho
  • "The characters, landscapes, and colors that come and go in this road movie are so honestly Brazilian that the story may even walk in the direction of fantasy, surrealism, or absurdity that will not cease to be radically realistic."
    Juliano Dornelles
Winner
Audience Award
SESC Film Festival, Brazil
Nominated
Palme d'Or
Cannes Film Festival
Official Selection
New York Film Festival
Official Selection
Thessaloniki Int'l. Film Festival
Official Selection
Cannes Classics