Minor Spoilers (the screenplay is based on a historic event)
In the 30's, the German Jew Olga Benário (Camila Morgado) leaves her bourgeois family and becomes a revolutionary, with army training in the Soviet Union. In 1935, she is assigned to protect the Brazilian communist leader Luis Carlos Prestes (Caco Ciocler), who is returning to Brazil to raise a revolutionary movement against the fascist dictator Getúlio Vargas (Osmar Prado). Along the long travel to Brazil, while they pretend to be a married couple, they fall in love for each other. In Brazil, they live together as husband and wife, and when the communist upraise fails, they are sent to separated cells in the prison. Olga realizes that she is pregnant, and although being the daughter of a Brazilian on her ventral, which would give her the right to stay in Brazil, the dictator Vargas sends her to Germany, as a gift to Adolf Hitler. With the advent of the Second World War, Olga is sent to a concentration camp, when she passes away on April 1942.
I read Fernando Morais' Olga about fifteen years ago, and I was very impressed with such a touching romantic story of an idealistic revolutionary martyr called Olga Benário Prestes. Yesterday I watched this spectacular movie, and again I got moved with tears on my eyes. 'Olga' is a Brazilian super-production (for Brazilian standards), with European style, that deserves nominations to the Oscar at least in two categories: Best Foreigner Picture and Best Lead Actress. 'Olga' is at least on the same level as Roman Polanski's 'The Pianist'.
Unfortunately, many Brazilian professional cinema 'critics' gave ridiculous ratings and influenced many viewers with their comments, specially those types of persons who pretend to look like intellectual, but in the end do not have personal opinion and are moved by the fashion and repeating the opinion of the others. I do not like to write long reviews, but 'Olga' deserves much explanations. Why the foregoing 'critics' gave low ratings to this wonderful movie? In my opinion, there are two main explanations. The first one is that most of them are usually very conservative persons, who mix ideology with arts. Their belief is that 'communists eat little children' (obs: translation of a pejorative Brazilian expression) and they cannot accept that communists are idealistic human beings, with feelings and love, persons who fight for their ideals. The movie does not spare the torturers and executioners of Olga, giving their names and showing partially their plot. The second point is the prejudice and envy over the roots of the director Jayme Monjardim, who originated from the greatest Brazilian television network and has directed this great national production. Many of these 'critics' dare to compare 'Olga' with an edited television mini-series. The production of 'Olga' is so careful that the resemblances of Camila Morgado and Caco Ciocler with the real Olga Benário and Luis Carlos Prestes are amazing. Fernando Morais' book shows pictures of them. Another example is the snowing scene in the concentration camp, which was filmed in a hot day (approximately 38o C / 100o F) in a factory in Bangu, a district in Rio de Janeiro. The performance of Caco Ciocler, in the important role of Luis Carlos Prestes, could be much expressive and is not in the same level of the rest of the cast, but shame on some Brazilian professional cinema 'critics', who gave low ratings for this outstanding and highly recommended movie. My vote is ten.
Title (Brazil): 'Olga'
In the 30's, the German Jew Olga Benário (Camila Morgado) leaves her bourgeois family and becomes a revolutionary, with army training in the Soviet Union. In 1935, she is assigned to protect the Brazilian communist leader Luis Carlos Prestes (Caco Ciocler), who is returning to Brazil to raise a revolutionary movement against the fascist dictator Getúlio Vargas (Osmar Prado). Along the long travel to Brazil, while they pretend to be a married couple, they fall in love for each other. In Brazil, they live together as husband and wife, and when the communist upraise fails, they are sent to separated cells in the prison. Olga realizes that she is pregnant, and although being the daughter of a Brazilian on her ventral, which would give her the right to stay in Brazil, the dictator Vargas sends her to Germany, as a gift to Adolf Hitler. With the advent of the Second World War, Olga is sent to a concentration camp, when she passes away on April 1942.
I read Fernando Morais' Olga about fifteen years ago, and I was very impressed with such a touching romantic story of an idealistic revolutionary martyr called Olga Benário Prestes. Yesterday I watched this spectacular movie, and again I got moved with tears on my eyes. 'Olga' is a Brazilian super-production (for Brazilian standards), with European style, that deserves nominations to the Oscar at least in two categories: Best Foreigner Picture and Best Lead Actress. 'Olga' is at least on the same level as Roman Polanski's 'The Pianist'.
Unfortunately, many Brazilian professional cinema 'critics' gave ridiculous ratings and influenced many viewers with their comments, specially those types of persons who pretend to look like intellectual, but in the end do not have personal opinion and are moved by the fashion and repeating the opinion of the others. I do not like to write long reviews, but 'Olga' deserves much explanations. Why the foregoing 'critics' gave low ratings to this wonderful movie? In my opinion, there are two main explanations. The first one is that most of them are usually very conservative persons, who mix ideology with arts. Their belief is that 'communists eat little children' (obs: translation of a pejorative Brazilian expression) and they cannot accept that communists are idealistic human beings, with feelings and love, persons who fight for their ideals. The movie does not spare the torturers and executioners of Olga, giving their names and showing partially their plot. The second point is the prejudice and envy over the roots of the director Jayme Monjardim, who originated from the greatest Brazilian television network and has directed this great national production. Many of these 'critics' dare to compare 'Olga' with an edited television mini-series. The production of 'Olga' is so careful that the resemblances of Camila Morgado and Caco Ciocler with the real Olga Benário and Luis Carlos Prestes are amazing. Fernando Morais' book shows pictures of them. Another example is the snowing scene in the concentration camp, which was filmed in a hot day (approximately 38o C / 100o F) in a factory in Bangu, a district in Rio de Janeiro. The performance of Caco Ciocler, in the important role of Luis Carlos Prestes, could be much expressive and is not in the same level of the rest of the cast, but shame on some Brazilian professional cinema 'critics', who gave low ratings for this outstanding and highly recommended movie. My vote is ten.
Title (Brazil): 'Olga'