Mauá - O Imperador e o Rei

The film is about Irineu Evangelista de Souza. The man was a Brazilian businessman. He came from a poor childhood. He went into trade at an early age. He invested in banking and in industry. He moved into railways and gas works. His fortune came to be measured against the country’s budget. In 1867 what he held was more than the state’s yearly budget. But things did not always go well. Politics and debts got in the way. In the end he lost what he had made. The account follows that rise and that fall. Paulo Betti and Malu Mader take the leads, with Othon Bastos also in the cast, in Sergio Rezende’s Brazilian film of 1999.