Maeva Silveira's testimonial about the making of

Going back to my Home Country

Thirty people from all over the world are staying in my house. There is no place, or time for privacy they are all together looking for the perfect shot. A young Spanish actor, two polish cinematographers, an American producer, an American editor, and a Brazilian director screaming, fighting, laughing, sleeping, it’s all I see.

The film is made in a poor neighborhood near downtown Rio, where the whole community is involved. Heavy machines are carried over and over the hills of Santa Teresa while the simple people from the neighborhood open their houses and offer food to the “gringos” working outside. It’s over rain, or by 90 F and they don’t stop working, even the kids are working. A beautiful black girl who just had her father being murdered is the main actress. She is beautiful, her face expresses the hardship of her life but her smile brings courage and strength.

The film was made in three languages, English, Portuguese, and Spanish but most people did not speak the same language in the set. What was really impressive was that even though people did not speak the same language they could communicate, and they did very well because it was not hard to find the cameraman, who only speaks Portuguese, making jokes with the editor, who only speaks English. It was amazing to see respect and admiration between people from all kinds of backgrounds. The mix of the two societies were the housekeepers had their young girls from the slams dancing like kids around famous actors from Brazil, young bachelors from the United States, singers, and diplomats son’s or the young male assistant screaming over and over the only sentence he knew in English, which was “Oh my God’ - in perfect harmony, was beautiful to see.

Going back to my Home Country this time was not how I used to remember, but even better. After my experience in this film what I saw was not only my country but also everybody’s, a place where everyone would struggle and react to it together.

Slide shows:

+the making of

+ the staff at Lauro Mesquita's samba round

+ La Revolución: a trip of the staff to Ilha Grande and Parati

+Grzegorz Krawczyk in the sky

Image galery:

+party of the end of the making of the movie