They Don't Wear Black Tie

São Paulo, the end of the seventies. A strike is called at the factory. Otávio has worked with the union for years and is among the organisers; he stands behind the decision and knows what it will cost. His son Tião works at the same plant. His girlfriend is pregnant and they want to marry; that takes money and the strike makes it impossible. Tião does not join and goes in to work. A division begins in the family and at the factory at once. Leon Hirszman directs. Gianfrancesco Guarnieri and Fernanda Montenegro are in the cast. The source is Guarnieri's play. The play was written in the fifties and is counted an important text in Brazilian theatre; the film carries it to the end of the seventies. It was made in the last years of the military period, while the labour movement in the country was rising again. The film won the special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival. The matter it builds is the tension between solidarity and personal interest; the narrative does not build Tião as a traitor and shows his logic too. The mother played by Fernanda Montenegro is at the centre and stands between the two sides. The factory and neighbourhood scenes were shot in real locations. Who it is for: anyone curious about social realist cinema and Latin American history. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the narrative rests on talk, and the ending is heavy.