A Idade da Pedra’s opening sequence, as the sun rises above the distant hills, directly quotes from one of A Idade da Terra’s possible openings, but in Ana Vaz’s take of Glauber Rocha’s recognizable title, ‘Terra’ (earth, land, soil) has been replaced by ‘Pedra’ (stone). This portrait of contemporary Brazil is more oblique than Rocha’s, proposing an imaginary ‘Stone Age’ situated neither in the future nor the past.

“A voyage into the far west of Brazil leads us to a monumental structure — petrified at the centre of the savannah. Inspired by the epic construction of the city of Brasília, the film uses this history to imagine it otherwise. I look at Brasília the way I look at Rome: Brasília began with a final simplification of ruins. Through the geological traces that lead us to this fictive monu- ment, the film unearths a history of exploration, prophecy and myth.” (Ana Vaz)

Portuguese spoken, English subtitles

Glauber Rocha’s final film defies every attempt at unequivocal classification or definition. “It’s not to be told, only to be seen”, he said. A torrential, hallucinatory anti-symphony, a terrifying cry of desperation, a destruction in progress. “The Age of the Earth is a great impossibility, a passage through world and time, a discovery of America on the opposite lane, a black Battleship Potemkin, or rather, it informs, full of gestures and rhythm, an extreme anti-classic — a spitting of blood in the face of the current cinema, dominated by sweetness.” (Pascal Bonitzer)

Courtisane will be presenting A Idade da Terra as Glauber Rocha had originally intended, leaving the order of its reels to be determined by the projectionist.

Portuguese spoken, English subtitles