O Que É Isso, Companheiro?

''Four Days in September'' ( pt, O Que É Isso, Companheiro?) is a 1997 Brazilian thriller film directed by Bruno Barreto and produced by his parents Lucy and Luiz Carlos Barreto. It is a dramatized version of the 1969 kidnapping of the United States Ambassador to Brazil, Charles Burke Elbrick, by members of Revolutionary Movement 8th October (MR-8) and Ação Libertadora Nacional (ALN).

It was nominated as Best Foreign Language Film at the 1998 Academy Awards.

Background

The film is "loosely based" on the 1979 memoir ''O Que É Isso Companheiro?'' (in English: ''What's It, Mate?''), written by politician Fernando Gabeira. In 1969, as a member of Revolutionary Movement 8th October (MR-8), a student guerrilla group, he participated in the abduction of the United States ambassador to Brazil, negotiating to gain release of leftist political prisoners. MR-8 was protesting the recent takeover of Brazil by a military government and seeking the release of political prisoners. But, the military increased its repression of dissent, MR-8 and ALN members were tortured by the police, and democracy was not re-established in Brazil until 1985.

Gabeira later became a journalist and politician, elected as congressman from the Green Party.

Plot

The film is a fictional version of the dramatic events of the 1969 abduction of the American ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick (played by Alan Arkin) in 1969. Elbrick was taken in Rio de Janeiro by the Revolutionary Movement 8th October (MR-8) with help of Ação Libertadora Nacional (ALN). Gabeira (played by Pedro Cardoso and named Paulo in the film) as a student joins the radical movement after the military takeover of the Brazilian government. He and his comrades, led by Andréia, gradually decided to kidnap the ambassador as a protest, and are shown mostly planning and executing the kidnapping. Paulo is portrayed as "the most intelligent and uncertain of the kidnappers."

The film explores Paulo's love affair with Andréia, the guerrilla leader. It suggests a kind of friendship developing between Paulo and Elbrick. The ambassador is portrayed as a decent man who shares some of his kidnappers' frustrations regarding the Brazilian military dictatorship, but who feels obligated to follow orders he might disagree with.

Cast

The main characters include:
*Paulo / Fernando Gabeira ( Pedro Cardoso) - member of the MR-8 guerrilla group and one of the kidnappers.
*Andréia / Maria (Fernanda Torres) - the beautiful and tough MR-8 guerrilla-group leader who falls in love with Paulo/Fernando.
*Charles Burke Elbrick (Alan Arkin) - the American ambassador, who forms a bond with Paulo/Fernando.
*Jonas / Virgílio Gomes da Silva (Matheus Nachtergaele) - member of ALN guerrilla group
*Marcão / Franklin Martins ( Luiz Fernando Guimarães) - second in command to the MR-8 guerrilla group and one of the kidnappers.
*Renée / Vera Sílvia Magalhães ( Cláudia Abreu) - member of the MR-8 guerrilla group and one of the kidnappers.
*Toledo / Joaquim Câmara Ferreira ( Nélson Dantas) - member of ALN guerrilla group. He's a Spanish expatriate in Brazil that fought the dictatorship of Francoist Spain
*Henrique (Marco Ricca) - former Navy enlistee and member of the National Intelligence Service of Brazil
*Brandão ( Maurício Gonçalves) - member of the National Intelligence Service of Brazil
*Júlio / Cid Benjamin (Caio Junqueira) - member of the MR-8 guerrilla group and one of the kidnappers.
*César / Oswaldo (Selton Mello) - member of the MR-8 guerrilla group, arrested prior to the kidnapping of the Ambassador.
*Dona Margarida / Elba Souto-Maior ( Fernanda Montenegro)
*Lília (Alessandra Negrini) - wife of Henrique
*Mowinkel (Fisher Stevens)

Reception

The film had mixed reviews, in part because of its fictionalizing Brazilian history, and its uneasy portrayal of terrorist activities by student radicals. Stephen Holden of ''The New York Times'' wrote, "''Four Days in September'' is an uneasy hybrid of political thriller and high-minded meditation on terrorism, its psychology and its consequences." STEPHEN HOLDEN, Review: ''Four Days in September''/"The Political Kidnapping Of an Ambassador Retold" ''The New York Times'', 30 January 1998, accessed 24 January 2014 He noted that the film suggests the kidnapping was followed by worse political events, with increased repression, and torture of MR-8 members. He describes Cardoso as the most complex character.

Roger Ebert gave it two stars, saying the film was marked by a "quiet sadness" and the "film examines the way that naive idealists took on more than they could handle."Roger Ebert, Review: ''Four Days in September'' (1998), 6 February 1998, Roger Ebert website
/ref> He suggests that the film tries to humanize both sides but seems muddled. Ebert writes, "The point of view is that of a middle-age man who no longer quite understands why, as a youth, he was so sure of things that now seem so puzzling."

Awards

Internationally, the film was nominated for many awards, including Best Foreign Language Film by the Academy Awards. Brazil entered it into the 47th Berlin International Film Festival.

See also

* List of submissions to the 70th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
* List of Brazilian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

References

External links

James Berardinelli review: ''Four Days in September''''Four Days in September''
BBC
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Four Days In September
1997 thriller films
1997 films
Brazilian thriller films
Films about Brazilian military dictatorship
Films directed by Bruno Barreto
Films set in Rio de Janeiro (city)
Films set in the 1960s
Films set in 1969
1990s Portuguese-language films
Films scored by Stewart Copeland