Shattered portrait:

the dictatorship in José Sette films

Abstract

José Sette de Barros is an independent director, linked to the generation of filmmakers post-Cinema Novo. His films are full of references to Brazilian’s history and literature, organized according to fragmentary montages, not very faithful to scripts. Three of his movies from 1970s and 1980s reflect the situation experienced by Brazilian society in those decades, astonished with the unfoldings of the military regime. This paper covers these films to analyze how their narrative discourse reverberates the historical context of the authoritarian years, composing a shattered portrait of the country under estate of exception.