Zé do Caixão do Sertão: maybe he'll make it to Cannes...

By Elieser Cesar_Bahia 247

Nestled in the semi-arid region of Bahia, 300 kilometers from Salvador, the small municipality of Cícero Dantas – formerly Bom Conselho, in homage to Antônio Conselheiro, the messianic leader of the Canudos War – produces beans and corn when the drought allows. However, under an unrelenting sun or the redeeming rain, it also makes films. And it is proud of its filmmaker: the radio broadcaster Eutímio Carvalho, known as the Zé do Caixão of the Sertão.

At 45 years old, with 26 years in filmmaking (he began his career as a filmmaker in the backlands at 23), and almost penniless, Carvalho begs for money from local merchants, writes post-dated checks, and sells and pawns the few possessions he has. But with a camera in his hands and an idea in his head, as Glauber Rocha preached, the "Zé do Caixão of the Sertão" has already made six films. His minimalist filmography has included everything from trashy horror to backwoods westerns: The Night of Terror; The Curse of Cíntia (the most rented film in Cícero Dantas); The Curse of Cíntia II, the Return; Bravios do Sertão; The Legend of the Red Lagoon and The Legend of the Red Lagoon II. This last film will premiere in mid-October in the small backlands town, with a screening promoted in Salvador by the Directorate of Visual Arts and Multimedia (Dimas) of the Cultural Foundation of the State of Bahia.

The story of this true hero of Brazilian cinema is worthy of a film. Several adventures marked Eutímio Carvalho's productions. His first film, A noite do terror (1989), was made with a VHS camera and a lot of imagination. The George Romero of Cícero Dantas – the classic author of zombie films – wrote the script and recruited people from the town itself for the cast. A truly chilling film, it was shown in a warehouse and became a local audience success. Already thinking about new productions, he charged R$ 1 for admission.

The exorcist of the caatinga

In 1997 came *The Curse of Cynthia*, the story of a woman who hates life, only thinks about wealth, makes a pact with the forces of darkness in an Umbanda temple, kills her own mother, tries to kill her sister, and ends up dying after falling down a flight of stairs following a fight with her brother. But like Bruce Willis's tough-guy character, Cynthia is also resilient and returns in demonic form for a terrible revenge. The devil woman possesses her brother's spirit, and that's where a bit of the classic *The Exorcist* comes in: the parish priest tries to exorcise the spirit that dominates Daniel in a titanic battle between the church and the devil, light and darkness. God and the Devil in the Land of the Sun.

Premonitory like The Omen – another icon of Hollywood horror – the film brought with it a "genuine curse," as many people in Cícero Dantas believe. It was said that whenever it was shown, someone would die. "Four people died in the towns where the film was screened. A priest asked me not to show it anymore," recalls Eutímio Carvalho, or rather, Zé do Caixão do Sertão (Coffin Joe of the Sertão).

Following that, in *The Curse of Cynthia II, the Return*, a group of young people, as a prank, steal the golden chalice from the church, but Cynthia returns from hell to take everyone's souls and thus overcome the power of darkness. Even more adventurous was the production of *Bravios do Sertão*, a 1999 Brazilian Western that tells the true story of a son of Cícero Dantas, a reckless and courageous man who confronts a gang of bandits. The saga of this backwoods Django was supposed to be funded by Fazcultura, a state government program to encourage cultural production. Eutímio's project was approved for R$ 300, a mega-investment worthy of a blockbuster, considering that the domestic budget of his other films did not exceed R$ 6. However, the companies did not give money to the persistent filmmaker.

"I thought about giving up, but here in the backlands, small businesses approved my project. I managed to get R$ 6,5 for a production budgeted at R$ 300, and I made the film with sheer guts and determination. I borrowed money from a loan shark, took out a loan from Banco do Brasil, sold my car, a CG motorcycle. The money I got wasn't enough to get started, and I had to cut 20 sequences from the film," says Zé do Caixão do Sertão.

Cast is chased by real Native Americans.

Eutímio Carvalho is the ultimate proof of the difficulty of making films in Brazil and the heroism of those who embark on the endeavor with almost nothing in their pockets: "The days passed and the money was running out. There was a lack of food on set, in the middle of nowhere. A director I hired had diabetes and needed insulin, and he also had a hemorrhoid flare-up. His wife grabbed a knife and, as if possessed by the evil spirit of Cíntia, came at me. I had to defuse the situation," he recalls.

The filmmaker's troubles didn't end there. Returning from the film set, his car broke down in the town of Mirandela, where an indigenous tribe was at war with local squatters. It seemed like the script for a new Western. The indigenous people mistook the cast of actors for squatters and set the filmmaker's car on fire. Like General Custer retreating from the Apaches, everyone fled into the woods, "hungry, cold, and very scared."

Eutímio Carvalho is excited about his new film, *The Legend of the Red Lagoon II – The Revenge*, a continuation of the story of two brothers who go hunting in the heart of the Bahian backlands, ignoring their mother's warning about a local legend that says hunting is forbidden in August. Along the way, they get lost and begin to realize they will have to fight hard for their lives, as revealed in the film's synopsis. Budgeted at R$ 50, the new film was produced by 402 Produções, owned by producer Duda Falcão, in Salvador.

"It's the best film of my career. We put a lot of effort into the script and the special effects," says Zé do Caixão do Sertão. Anyone who doubts it just needs to wait for the premiere. Anyone who thinks this filmmaker of simple people from the backlands is far from Gramado, Cannes, Hollywood, and other cinematic stages should know that Eutímio Carvalho has already won 52 awards at independent film festivals, including in Portugal, Sweden, and the Netherlands. With so many sacrifices, why does Zé do Caixão do Sertão persist in his dream of making films with so few resources and almost no sponsorship? He himself answers, like one of the characters in his trashy horror film: "There are things that appear in our lives that are a mystery."