Barren Lives

After a screening of Barren Lives, one of his most acclaimed films, Dos Santos discusses the film and his career with Darlene J. Sadlier, author of Contemporary Film Directors: Nelson Pereira dos Santos.

This masterpiece of world cinema demonstrates why dos Santos is renowned for adapting literature to screen. Based on a novel by Graciliano Ramos, Barren Lives is searing vision of a family’s struggle for survival in the extreme conditions of the Brazilian desert. Notable for its shifting point of view (including, famously, that of the family’s loyal dog) and groundbreaking use of light, this film is considered to be, in many ways, the Brazilian Grapes of Wrath. (103 mins., 35mm)