Narcissus Off Duty

World famous Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso looks back on his experiences in 1968 when he was arrested and jailed by the military dictatorship in this quietly fascinating and intimate documentary. Shot very simply in a bare concrete room without any distractions, his words carry the film. He is a very moving storyteller, describing strange encounters with his interrogators and other prisoners with genuine insight and empathy, speaking openly about painful memories of enduring solitary confinement and its crushing effect on the human spirit.

‘Brazil has a government that says that the military dictatorship was a good thing. And they are trying to cast it in a positive light. So it’s timely to talk about that period the way I do in the film now. I try [now] to concentrate my actions doing musical things for the enlightenment of minds in Brazil. The thing is, there might be some reactions. And I should be afraid at some level. But in fact the situation now is different. Back then it was a dictatorship that started with a coup, and it was entirely military. Now we have a government that was elected and formally we are under a democracy.’

Caetano Veloso, from an interview with Variety.