The borders of sense: Revisiting iracema, uma transa amazonica (1974)

Abstract

A landmark of Brazilian cinema, Iracema: Uma transa Amazônica (1974), by Jorge Bodansky and Orlando Senna, remains an underexplored film. This fiction-documentary hybrid is a visual reflection on territoriality, mobility, and borders-borders that are inherently paradoxical, limits constituted by contact, lines of division drawn by virtue of the possibility of their crossing. This article considers the significance of the film as a form of sociopolitical critique carried out by narrative and allegorical components. The film, however, also contains elements that resist interpretation, relating to the filming of unplanned and improvised encounters between film and lived, historical world. This article explores the implications of this dual gesture and proposes ways to appreciate the elements in the film that do not bear intended meaning but are highly significant. © 2013 Taylor and Francis.