Marighella

"Brazil’s number one enemy"

2021 2h 35m PT

🙌

7.6

BANGER

★7.6TMDB · 138

DramaHistoryAction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Afro-Brazilian poet and politician, the legendary Carlos Marighella. Driven to fight against the erosion of civil and human rights following the CIA-backed military coup of 1964 and the brutal, racist right-wing dictatorship that followed, the revolutionary leaves behind his wife and son to take up arms, becoming a notorious enemy to the power structure.

“Brazil’s number one enemy”

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Cast

Seu Jorge
Carlos Marighella
Bruno Gagliasso
Lúcio
Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos
Branco
Humberto Carrão
Humberto
Jorge Paz
Jorge
Bella Camero
Bella
Henrique Vieira
Frei Henrique
Ana Paula Bouzas
Maria

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Wagner Moura
Writers: Felipe Braga, Wagner Moura
Languages: Portuguese
Countries: Brazil

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 155 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 5 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Wagner Moura, shot by Adrian Teijido. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Samuel Ferrari. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Lucas Gonzaga shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Seu Jorge and Bruno Gagliasso and Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Brazil’s number one enemy".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Wagner Moura directs. Adrian Teijido behind the camera. Samuel Ferrari scores. Lucas Gonzaga cuts. Produced in Brazil. Dialogue in Portuguese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 155 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
2Shot for just $1.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Released 5 years ago.
4Directed by Wagner Moura, shot by Adrian Teijido. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Samuel Ferrari. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Lucas Gonzaga shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Seu Jorge and Bruno Gagliasso and Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Brazil’s number one enemy".
9IMDB entry: tt7825208 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Adrian Teijido
Original score: Samuel Ferrari
Editing: Lucas Gonzaga
Makeup / hair: Martín Macías Trujillo
Sound: Guilherme Marinho
Runtime: 155 min · 2h 35m
Status: Released
Budget: $1,769,789
Original language: PT
IMDB: Marighella (2021)

Also by

Wagner Moura

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

KendraChihaya2019-02-18
★ 1/10
The film is a free adaptation to fiction of the life of one of the worst communist guerrillas that ever lived in Brazil. It can not be considered a biographical film, much less a documentary, since many situations and scenes were created by the film director, niece of the terrorist, to substantiate the character's "hero" thesis. No matter how clear the interest in humanizing Marighella, trying to turn it into myth, the insistence on trying to associate it simply as an uncle, an ordinary man, is no longer a mere initial curiosity and gradually becomes an exaggeration unnecessary of the director. This duality, between the familiar and historical aspect, punctuates the whole film, provoking a clear conflict in the "documentary", making it a work of fiction. In the real life, the main character was never black, but in the film, the discourse of humanization and equality, loses space for the victimization of this criminal, responsible for several brutal murders during the Period of Military Intervention in Brazil (1964-1981). Unfortunately, when political and ideological discourse seeks to be superior to the production of a work of art, we have only the production of a mediocre film, disguised as a documentary that seeks to present only one facet of Brazilian history in this period. Wanting to justify brutal killings for simple acts of political intolerance.
r96sk2023-01-10
★ 8/10
A tad slower than I would've liked, though <em>'Marighella'</em> is still very good. Seu Jorge puts in a noteworthy performance throughout, all the more impressive given acting isn't his bread and butter. I also enjoyed Bruno Gagliasso in this, not his character of course but the actor's showing is good. The rest of the cast, e.g. Humberto Carrão and Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos, merit praise too. I can't say I knew anything about Carlos Marighella (surname did ring a slight bell beforehand, mind) or even much about this era of Brazil, which is something I actually prefer as I like to judge a film as a film and not having prior knowledge only helps that. Therefore, I wouldn't know how truthful this biopic is or isn't but I will say it doesn't hold much back - there are some very rough scenes scattered across the near 3hrs. Speaking of the run time, I do think it's ever so slightly overlong - I was never pining for the finish or anything close to that, but there are a few moments where I felt the film could've sped itself up a bit. It's not a true criticism of mine, though.