The Flesh Itself is proof that Brazilian cinema is creative and rich in content

National cinema has an extremely rich and complex history. Between different moments and sabotages, productions persist. Navigating through the eras, Cinema Novo, Marginal, the Chanchadas and the Cinema de Retomada initiated after the 1990s, we get to know our trajectory and Brazilian audiovisual culture. Like this, The Flesh Itself debuts as an independent work with a lot of personality, ideas and possibilities.

The film was born from the collaboration between Ian SBF, co-founder of Porta dos Fundos and director who has accumulated projects such as A Sociedade da Virtude and Teste de Elenco, and the partnership of one of the most iconic duos on the Brazilian internet, Deive Pazos and Alexandre Ottoni, both founders of the blog that became a content and production factory, Jovem Nerd.

At the invitation of the production, the IGN Brazil spoke with Ian SBF, Deive Pazos and the film’s cast: Luiz Carlos Persy, Jorge Guerreiro, Jade Mascarenhas, George Sauma and Pierre Baitelli.

Charismatic cast driven by purpose

With a short cast, The Flesh Itself has a lot of time for character development, even if a large part of these layers are the mysteries of each of the five main figures. In a fifteen-day journey to carry out the recordings in Farroupilha, Rio Grande do Sul, the actors quickly connected so that the chemistry built was reflected in the results seen on the big screen.

When reporting this connection, Luiz Carlos Persy joked that he couldn’t explain it, otherwise he would cry, while Jorge Guerreiro added: “I think there was something really chemical. Sometimes I keep thinking, ‘what was it’? Because it really worked out really well.” Persy highlighted in a relaxed tone, drawing laughter: “We are very good people.”

To face this world of national cinema it is necessary to have focus and purpose, and this cast has it in spades. The awareness of the script produced by the trio of producers and the opportunity to be directed by Ian influenced the actors’ decision to accept the project. Guerreiro, nominated for the Best Supporting Actor award at the FilmQuest Festival, highlighted the importance of care and construction of his character and plot given the historical context of the Paraguayan War and Brazil’s slavery era:

For Baitelli, in addition to the script, the confidence to accept the project came from the moment they chose him after following his work on Reality Z, a Netflix production: “this confidence when you see an actor beyond the initial mask and body type (…) seeing me in a scene of this work and saying: ‘Okay, that’s him’ (…) that was what made me most want to do it”, he said. “It’s an insane dive”, reinforced Persy.

Perfect choice for the antagonist

For both Ian and Deive, the choice of Luiz Carlos Persy for the role of the Farmer was extremely quick and accurate. In the conversation, Azaghal quickly pointed out that as soon as he read the third sentence in the script, he turned and said to Ian: “Oh, you know the farmer is Persy, right? It’s definitely Persy.”

Without a doubt, the choice was perfect for the role of antagonist. The actor’s body and sound work is one of the highlights of the work. When asked about the role, he commented: “When I read the script, I realized what it was, there are no half measures. It’s about doing and having to do two physiotherapy sessions, having your knee fornicating with your spine. That’s it, there’s no ‘I’ll save myself.'”

Persy also reported that the construction of the character comes largely from her imagination since childhood: “boy, I think everyone here played a lot of bad guys and good guys, right? And I had a peculiarity. I would lock myself in my room, I would say to my family: ‘I’m going to fly’. No one needed to close the window, it was a very rational thing. I would close the door, start creating stories in my head and walk around the room. I’ll even reproduce them”, she said, getting up and gesturing fervently. “I kept walking around the room and imagining things. And then I left myself, I didn’t see the house, I didn’t see the room.”

The strong presence of Cthulhu is reminiscent of many well-known productions, such as “The Lighthouse”. Ian even pointed out: “I think a lot of Willem Dafoe really came into this character of Persy, but maybe even more unconsciously than a choice to take an image of him or have a conversation about it”.

Technical choices — and a lot of blood

Technically impressive, A Própria Carne brings intense production and art direction work. The film uses devices to leave the viewer lost in relation to temporal and spatial topics. Even though the surprises in the production bring tension, the makeup is largely responsible for the characterization and tensions of the scene. The blood vibrates and marks.

Ian points out that there are moments when you see very explicit things, but it was never the focus of the production to go into gore. Another interesting detail is that this process went through the special effects team, although many things were built in practical effects. “We didn’t even expect to have so many visual effects, so much so that we didn’t even have an effects director on set, which generated a lot of complaints from people, because there was no tracking. We had to do it by hand”, revealed Azaghal.

The location in Farroupilha was also an important point for the entire process, and climate issues became major obstacles to production. “We needed to film when it was cloudy and rainy outside, right? So, when it was sunny, unlike almost all films, we went inside the house. And then, when the weather was shit, we went outside”, Ian pointed out.

For the actors, the recordings were a lot of fun, but full of challenges. “It was during the tragedy that we connected”, joked Jade Mascarenhas. In addition to the weather conditions, rain and mud, the high level of detail in the production took the film’s makeup and costume work to the extreme. “There was a moment when I lost an eye and I had it covered for 12 hours. When I took it out, my eye was like: ‘What happened?’ My eye died. And several times Ian or the production team said: ‘For God’s sake, are you okay?’ I said: ‘It’s okay. Let’s go”, revealed George Sauma.

According to the cast, the most important thing is the trust that existed in the relationship between the actors and the production and, mainly, in the work. Sauma highlighted that “we had confidence in the result and it worked”, while Jorge reinforced: “it was something you (George Sauma) said, it was confidence in the result (…) So, with a lot of blood, little blood, we knew that some really cool things were coming.”

Future of collaborations

In 2002, Deive and Alexandre founded Jovem Nerd, which was born as a blog inspired by the release of Star Wars – Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Since then, the venture has grown and won over fans around the world with the various projects and formats worked on by the duo and partners, such as Nerdcast, a pioneering podcast in Brazil that has just completed 1000 episodes.

“These new projects that we have done over the years, like França e o Labyrinth, Dragon’s Cave, now the film, are challenges. This gives you the fuel to want to do new things. But, above all, collaboration. All of our projects we work collaboratively and this film is no exception”, explained Deive.

A Própria Carne is the first Jovem Nerd production to hit theaters, but it is not the first work with Ian SBF. In addition to the Society of Virtue, when asked about future projects together, both highlighted the partnership with great joy: “we have known each other for more than 15 years. During this period we have done many things together and this one, in terms of audiovisual, mainstream cinema, is the first step of a long journey, for sure”, said Azaghal. Ian reinforced this view: “we had creative conflicts, and it was the best thing in the world (…) how many things I don’t remember today that are in the film and that I say, ‘wow, that’s cool that Deive fought for that, because that makes sense’”.

The Flesh Itself is available in cinemas across Brazil and is a perfect choice for Halloween.

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