Island of Truth
Ilha Das Flores by Jorge Furtado is an experimental short film that uses non – fiction literature, music, and visual images to contextualize the lives of vagrants existing within what seems to be a thriving country. The director is a local from Porto Alegre, Brazil. He grew up amidst mass destitution and his films often explore the notions of class and poverty that surrounded him as a child. These dangerous events of danger, corruption and mass poverty are not often portrayed in popular Brazilian media. From the Olympics to Carnival, the media coverage tends to portray the quintessential image of life on the beach. Brazil has one of the largest wage gaps in the world but the postcard of Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, is deceiving to tourists. Ilha Das Flores tells the narrative of a tomato's life from seed to ingestion while subtly portraying horrific life conditions of Brazilian people. The film's subtle exploration of a dark truth reflects the media's tendency to not tell the entire narrative. Furtado uses the non-fiction theme of switching the background of poverty with the foreground narrative of a tomato to lightly discuss an atrocity. At the end of the film, the viewer understands the tomato's life process but is also left with a feeling of disgust in regards to the dehumanizing treatment of the locals on the Ilha Das Flores.
The film begins with a title card that says, "This is not a fiction fiIm." This has the effect of solidifying the piece as a document of truth. Immediately after, a title card follows that says, "There is a place called Island of Flowers." This card establishes the film's setting on an island of trash. The third card comes with a surprise, "There is no God." I was caught off guard because Brazil has one of the largest catholic communities in the world and the film was released in 1989 when "blasphemous" art was a more radical thought than it is today. This phrase comes after the claim that the film is true, giving the viewer two options: turning off the film due to religious disagreements, or accepting the statement as truth. This pessimistic outlook makes sense in the context of Brazil's horrific economy and the entropic narrative that explores the rough lives of people who may or may not have a God.
Ilha Das Flores tells the narrative by simply defining an object and comparing the definition to another object in a similar situation. For example, the narrator compares pigs to the owners. Because a pig can be ingested and has an owner, it is valuable. The narrator goes on to compare the pigs to the locals on Ilha Das Flores, because they have no owners and no food they are defined as having less value than pigs. This definition is visually confirmed by shots of pigs enjoying the trash before the humans are allowed to enter and look for scraps. It is this dehumanizing process of deduction that is subtly told with a haunting deadpan tone. Each event builds upon the previous as objects are defined and comparisons are made. Another comparison that is made is between the different people that eat pigs: Japanese, Americans, but not Jews. As the narrator mentions the Jews, photographs of large piles of dead bodies fill up the screen before the narrator calmly moves on. As the narrative unfolds an ideology begins to form about capitalism, poverty, and greed, like a philosophy that continues to expand on its previous revelations. The ideology seems overtly brutal, but after brief reflection one can see that every event portrayed in the film is a true event that continues to occur every day.
The film is strung together like an essay partly due to the intricately planned voiceover. There are two versions of the film circulating about the web. The two versions carry a different meaning than the other film even though the visuals remain the same. The more popular film has an english voice over and the other version is narrated in portuguese. The british voice adds a notion of white authority and superior intelligence. This further enhances the feeling of dehumanization because of the speaker's deadpan tone as he describes the indigestible visuals. The Brazilian narrator creates a feeling of receiving the information from an insider. The portugese voice, although indigenous to the land, does not have the same effect of the foreigner. Ultimately, the english dubbed version is more effective in portraying the film's ideology because the language further isolates the dehumanized reality of Ilha Das Flores from the American viewer.
Furtado explores the notion of non fiction filmmaking to explain a stark truth about the awful conditions in Brazil. concept by making one to one comparisons and building on the comparison immediately after. For example, the narrator describes the worth of the pigs in relation to their owners. The film moves on to say that homeless people are worth nothing because they have no money. This gives the feeling of dehumanization and the viewer might think the filmmaker is oversimplifying. But after some consideration, it becomes clear that in the context of our capitalistic world, having no money is the same as having nothing at all. Ilha Das Flores is an experimental film that realizes the technique of flipping terrible issues that should be in the foreground like mass destitution and the holocaust with material desires like perfume and tomatoes. This witty translation of awful events into a heart wrenching non fiction film urges the viewer to reflect on what they value in life.