The Guns

Ruy Guerra's 1964 film is one of the harshest works of Cinema Novo's first period. Armed soldiers are sent to a poor town besieged by prolonged drought, to stop the starving population from raiding a food depot. In the town a religious leader has convinced his followers to revere a sacred ox, while a truck driver is caught between his friendship with the soldiers and his anger at the government's inaction. The film was shot entirely on location on a small budget; the dry land, people hallucinating from hunger, and the coldness of the weapons occupy the same frame. Guerra presents starvation not as a natural event but as a decision of government. It won the Silver Bear extraordinary jury prize at the 14th Berlin International Film Festival and is counted, with Nelson Pereira dos Santos's Barren Lives and Glauber Rocha's Black God, White Devil, as part of Cinema Novo's golden trilogy. Who it's for: viewers interested in Brazilian Cinema Novo and early examples of political cinema. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding animal cruelty and images of starvation, or wanting narrative resolution.