This Tuesday, we ended our study of Glauber Rocha’s work by watching Terra em Transe (1967). For me,it is the most disorientating work that we watched in class. It is told through flashbacks and isn’t concerned with following a straightforward narrative to tell its story of government corruption and class struggle. After watching 3 of his films,I’ve noticed this is a stylistic choice rather than a technical flaw. While it was seen subtly in his first film,Barravento (1962),in this film it is upped to eleven. Rather than show the main character’s writing more simplistically,his poetry is laid over images of him in an empty land with only a gun pointed towards the sky. He speaks another poem over this shot about his inner conflict and loneliness as he switches political positions. This scene, representative of his emotions, is then followed by a high-angle shot of the opposing political leader putting his flag on the same beach that is implied to belong to indigenous people. This scene can be interpreted as what the main character sees the conservative politician’s beliefs are, betrayal of the people of the country he has taken charge of. What I initially dismissed as a scene added for the sake of confusing the audience,upon second viewing,I caught the interpretation and realized how much it foreshadowed the second half of the film. Just as Rocha upped his usage of this technique,I also noticed he made the message of his film much more obvious compared to his other two films. Barravento (1962) is a more character-driven narrative with an ensemble cast,the main characters of whom are more thoroughly fleshed out. The rest of the Afro-Brazilians are treated as a singular character. The allegory for oppression comes with their interactions with the main character and their boss. These interactions that make the allegory clearer,however,are not shown often. Rather,the main character speaks of their struggles,making it seem more connected to his film and his character rather than the rest of the world. Black God,White Devil (1964),is the medium between the films. The film has both characters with clear motives yet not so complicated that their actions are their own. Rather,they serve to partially be a vehicle for the overall critique of religion. Terra em Transe (1967) is the extreme end of the spectrum,wherein the critique and allegory come first. The characters that are meant to represent political corruption are not given any moments of character growth that could turn them to a fully fleshed out character. They also have extreme personalities that separate them from being misinterpreted as their own characters separate from any real-world comparisons. Almost every main character in the film has a moment to turn to the camera and explain their motivation and paired with the simplistic allegorical characters,a viewer would have to actively disengage with the film to not see its message. I find it fascinating to see this progression happen in correlation to the political climate in Brazil and his growing disillusionment.