Review: Guilherme Carréra, Brazilian Cinema and the Aesthetics of Ruins (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021)

Abstract

At a time of crisis of the liberal democratic project throughout much of the Western world, the examination of ‘ruins’ in relation to the development/underdevelopment of nation-states emerges as a timely topic worthy of investigation through the cinematic lens of documentarists and filmmakers of both developed and developing countries alike. Notably, the examination of what constitutes a ruin – with its aesthetic of decay and marginalization – has been explored by various traditions of realism in different national cinemas, from Italian neo-realism to Iranian film, within a context where the filmmaker’s camera focuses on the destruction of cities and sites in contrast to the nation’s political and economic problems as well as its social inequalities.