Barren Lives

Dealing with the plight of the very poor in Northeastern Brazil, this centres on a family that has been forced by drought to wander through the desert seeking some kind of work to keep them from starving. A brief respite when the man finds a job as a cattle-herder is shattered by a further drought, a disastrous gambling session, and a beating-up by the police for having insulted an officer. The film moves slowly, with a type of minimalism that emphasises the oppressive fatefulness of the family's existence: a strong comment against the landowners, priests and police, whose individualism perpetuates a needless suffering. JDuC.