On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of O exército de um homem só (“The One-Man Army”), we have prepared an audiovisual adaptation of three passages from the book. The production is by Prana Films, with direction and screenplay by Carlos Gerbase. The cast includes Luiz Paulo Vasconcellos, Roberto Oliveira, Luciana Paz, Mirna Spritzer and Sérgio Lulkin. Below we reproduce Carlos Gerbase’s testimonial about the creative process of adapting the scenes, also available after the text.
ONE MORE FOR BIROBIDJAN’S ARMY
By Carlos Gerbase
Although the novel is called The One-Man Army, I don’t think its author can complain about the small battalion of cultural guerrillas responsible for the video created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this very important work in Moacyr Scliar’s career. Early this year, I received a phone call from Judith Scliar asking me to think about a video that would show something of the story of Captain Birobidjan. I immediately remembered that we had produced some videos with Moacyr’s characters for the 2014 exhibition at Santander Cultural, and among them were Mayer (the future Birobidjan, as a child) and his mother, played by Mirna Spritzer. I asked for some time to reread “The One-Man Army,” and think about a script for the video.
It was a lot of fun to read it again. Although I remembered Mayer’s personality well, revisiting the details of his story made me laugh a lot. Of course, I had to adapt the script to the scale of the production: a maximum of ten minutes and one day to shoot. One scene that seemed to be a must, which both Judith and Gabriel Oliven remembered, was that of Mayer’s father making a crazy appointment with Freud at Salgado Filho Airport. Upon rereading the sequence, I agreed with them. It was very long, taking up several pages, but I synthesized and simplified some actions until I got it down to a reasonable length.
The problem was that in these two scenes, the first with Mayer as a child and the second with Mayer’s father, the captain himself would not appear. I realized that we needed a third episode with Mayer as an adult. I found a scene from the book where the wife, Leia, goes to visit Nova Birobidjan and finds her husband who is nearly demented and lonely, living with a pig, a goat and a chicken. It was just the right length, it was funny, and it was a nice counterpoint to the opening scene, because it involved Mayer submitting to a female character (and a Jewish one, of course) who forces him to eat. I sent the script proposal to Judith and Gabriel, and after a few minor tweaks, it was approved.
It was then time to add to the army. I cast the actors I felt were right for the characters: Roberto Oliveira (Mayer’s father), Luiz Paulo Vasconcellos (Freud), Sérgio Lulkin (Mayer) and Luciana Paz (Leia). I sent them the script and explained the project. They agreed on the spot. I set up a rehearsal for us to fine-tune our acting style. We probably didn’t even need to. There was no shortage of talent and experience.
My team was small, but very competent: Alexander Desmouceaux (photography and editing), Cleverton Borges (direct sound), Anelisa Teles (costumes) and Baby Marques (make-up). On June 14, we filmed all the scenes with a green backdrop, which was subsequently replaced by virtual sets.
I think the end result was what Judith, Gabriel and I had in mind from the start. For readers of Moacyr Scliar, who I’m sure are also fans of Captain Birobidjan, seeing these characters again, if only for a few minutes, is a playful way of paying homage to an author who liked to play and have fun with his stories, which never compromised his stylistic rigor. For me, who read The War in Bom Fim, The One-Man Army and The Gods of Raquel when I was taking my first steps into literature and cinema, it will always be a pleasure to dialogue with the work of this great writer. Maybe one day we’ll be able to move forward and play with other characters and other stories even with just a small army.
Watch the three scenes:
https://youtu.be/OHmCSAZN1kI
