Werner Herzog, Bolsonaro and company, and the awareness of the dead.

Deaths in our consciences. Life causes us to have deaths in our path. Depending on our actions, we carry more or less weight, but we do have them. Bolsonaro, Moro (who is now leaving the government as if he weren't complicit), Guedes, Mandetta, the current Minister of Health, Nelson Teich, and so many others will have deaths, thousands of deaths, on their records, given the ineffectiveness and irresponsibility with which they are managing people's lives during this coronavirus pandemic. Will they have enough conscience to blame themselves?

In the 80s, I attended a lecture by the German filmmaker Werner Herzog at the Goethe Institute in São Paulo. The artist spoke about everything, even how much he admired the soccer player Sócrates – “he moves like a gazelle” – and, of course, about his films. However, he didn't want to talk much about the film “Fitzcarraldo,” which was my main curiosity.

An epic film, made in the Amazon, portraying a wealthy adventurer who wanted to build an opera house in the heart of the jungle. A controversial character, and a controversial filmmaker alike: Herzog had a ship dragged through the jungle, with all the operational difficulties, putting lives at risk.

The German director didn't want to elaborate on the film, offering a poignant explanation, which I'll reproduce from memory, more or less like this: “People died during filming. I have three deaths on my conscience. I can share my joy and happiness with you, but I can't come here and say: take one dead person for yourself, another for you all, and another for you, and have a clear, peaceful conscience. I can't.”

I ask again: will these irresponsible authorities, these wealthy bosses, have any remorse for the lives of the thousands or millions that are going into the graves? I say millions, including the whole world in this sad story, but I have no news of irresponsibility on the scale of that of the Brazilian authorities.