Reciprocal narratives in Que bom te ver viva (Lúcia Murat, 1989)

Abstract

Directed by Brazilian filmmaker Lúcia Murat, Que bom te ver viva [How nice to see you alive] (1989) interlaces the testimonies of eight female political prisoners with a monologue voiced by an anonymous female fictional character. All allude to the experience of torture under the military dictatorial regime in Brazil. Given that Murat was a militant student imprisoned and tortured during the dictatorship, the film appears to have an autobiographical motivation. I argue, however, that the interlacing of fictional monologue and ‘real’ testimonies effaces this motivation. Rather, the intersection between fictional and testimonial accounts offers a reciprocal recognition between interviewees and filmmaker, allowing for the inscription of these individual stories into the historical narrative. I also argue that this reciprocal recognition is anchored in the feminist practice of storytelling, practised in consciousness-raising feminist groups in the 1960s and 1970s. Adriana Cavarero’s philosophy of narration underpins my analysis.