Meteoro: Utopia is Still Possible

LATIN HORIZONS
Diego de la Texera: "It is a very beautiful metaphor"

"Utopia is still possible." This is the fundamental role that director Diego de la Texera seeks to convey with 'Meteoro', one of two Brazilian feature films competing in the Latin Horizons section of the 54th San Sebastián Festival.

The film narrates the life of a peculiar community made up of workers hired to build a highway and abandoned to their own fate, along with prostitutes who decide to live in a remote area of Brazil. The film portrays an idyllic place where there are no laws, money, or violence, until the 1964 military coup forces them to abandon their private paradise.

The story is based on a true event, although shown in a romanticized way in contrast to the extreme poverty of reality. The project took years to complete due to economic problems, being filmed in two stages (2002 and 2004) in the locations of Mundaú and Ceará, counting on the fundamental support of the 'Cine en Construcción' program for its completion.

For actress and producer Maria Dulce Saldanha, the highlight of the film is its ensemble nature: "We were a very united group. There was no star among us; the star was the story itself". The title refers to a frequent natural phenomenon in the region that, in the film, brings about positive consequences for the characters.

According to De la Texera, the work is a metaphor that recalls the hippie movements of the sixties and the optimism experienced in Brazil under the presidency of Juscelino Kubitschek. "Despite the end of utopias, it is still possible to dream of a better life".