Shielding a culture from the influence of another is necessary, renowned Brazilian actor Helena Ignez has said.
She was speaking during ‘In Conversation,’ anchored by theatre personality M.K. Raina, at Sree cinema on Saturday afternoon.
Decolonisation
Ms. Ignez said though the Portuguese left two centuries ago, a process of decolonisation was taking place only now in the minds of Brazilians.
Ms. Ignez is heralded as an incredibly strong female presence in the industry, that too at a time when Brazil had lapsed into military rule.
“I do not know where I found the courage from. I just had to do it; I needed to be part of this new wave cinema, when censorship was inflicted on us by the regime,” said Ms. Ignez.
She even alluded to the election of a Communist government in Kerala, and expressed wonder that this process of democratically electing a government was possible back then.
On broken lives
“We led broken lives because of the repressive nature of the Brazilian leadership then,” Ms. Ignez said.
On the Indian film industry, she admitted to not being familiar with it but hailed the works of Satyajit Ray as “marvellous.”
She also spoke on her best-known works, such as ‘The Red Light Bandit’ that was released in 1968.
