Roteiro de longa-metragem escrito em inglês em 2019 por Bernardo E. Lopes, FATHER AGAINST MOTHER: A SCREENPLAY é uma adaptação do conto “Pai Contra Mãe” de Machado de Assis para o cinema, no estilo hollywoodiano — mas trazendo a narrativa original do Rio de Janeiro para as Minas Gerais do século XIX. Originalmente escrito para o concurso norte-americano de roteiro da Script Pipeline®, o texto mantém a crítica machadiana e a estratégia do autor brasileiro de manter o foco na perspectiva do protagonista branco — apenas para mostrar que a crueldade da escravatura só não era enxergada por quem não queria.

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SINOPSE EM INGLÊS:

A breathtaking tale taking place in 19th-century Brazil, the last country in the Western world to abolish slavery.

Originally written for the 2019 Script Pipeline Screenwriting Contest and based on one of Machado de Assis‘s most brilliant texts, FATHER AGAINST MOTHER: A SCREENPLAY was scripted by Brazilian author Bernardo E. Lopes in the Hollywood style that has established other classics of his country’s cinema, such as the national and international success THE BANDIT (“O Cangaceiro”, winner of the Adventure Film Award at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival®).

In the 1880s, good-for-nothing Candinho (nickname for Cândido, “candid”) hops from job to job and can’t find an occupation worth bothering with. He then goes for a lucrative activity at the time — that of a “slave catcher”, hunting runaway enslaved persons, whose rewards would help him make ends meet. Both Cândido and his lover Clara want to live a stable life and build a family, but as soon as Clara becomes pregnant, this dream proves more difficult than expected.

As his job opportunities dwindle, threatening the couple’s baby’s survival, Cândido’s path crosses that of Arminda — a runaway enslaved young woman who could earn him a good reward, but who is pregnant herself. Their encounter will lead them to a clash for the lives of each of their lineage.

The testimony of a Machiavellian and capitalist society, which only sees enslaved persons as “things” devoid of any humanity, both the 1906 short story “Father against Mother” by Machado de Assis and this 2019 film script by Bernardo E. Lopes paint a harsh portrait of Brazilian society at the end of the 19th century, crudely exposing the enslavement, misery and violence experienced by black and poor people in the country.

Screenwriter Bernardo E. Lopes performs the feat of transferring Machado’s microcosm from Rio de Janeiro to Bernardo’s own hometown, Sabará, in the state of Minas Gerais.

FATHER AGAINST MOTHER: A SCREENPLAY exposes not only the many forms of torture naturalized by the “good Brazilian people”, but especially the fact that, in those times — and to this day — African or Afro-descendant people were, and are, considered second-class citizens in Brazil, being treated as lives that are worth less and that, often, do not even have the right to be born.

A great denunciation of the oppression of a capitalist slave system with racial and gender violence that persists into the 21st century. A GREAT PERIOD THRILLER SCRIPT – AND AN ASTOUNDING MOTION PICTURE TO LOOK FORWARD TO.

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