Embu

"Embu" is a special tribute to the city of Embu das Artes and directed by veteran director Roberto Santos ("O Grande Momento", "Quincas Borba"), where he and his collaborating writers present the then country city, located in São Paulo, as a place with great diversity in its culture, people, architecture and music.

Nothing is said but plenty is shown with its people and their costumes back in the 1960's and deeply rooted ever since its foundation by Jesuit priests in the 17th Century.

The movie works as a time machine to a different period in Brazil history and also works as an invitation to discover what Embu das Artes had to offer then, and possibly still has some of their old traditions and regional parties which countless cities also have - those who live there or were alive back in the day will certainly have plenty of things to share more than I do. I personally don't know the city, never been there and like a great deal of history buffs, we know it by name since it was the place where the remains of infamous Nazi criminal Josef Mengele were found in 1985 - a huge event back in the day since he was wanted by authorities for decades (though he actually died in Bertioga in 1979). Just a twisted trivia for you, the short film has nothing to do with this.

A small work by Santos but quite curious and well-made. It'd be interesting if he had a narrator to pintpoint historical facts about the city or interview artists and local people. 6/10.