José Goulão / Flickr
The songs by Xutos & Pontapés serve as the motto for “O Homem do Leme”, a project currently being filmed in Lisbon, which will give rise to a film and a series that tell a story of survival in the urban jungle.
“O Homem do Leme”, a musical, tells a story “of survival, of trying to overcome, of reaching a better condition, but with one side always pulling down. Therefore, it is an intense struggle”, the project’s screenwriter told Lusa, Mario Cunhaon a day of filming, in Bairro do Armador, in Lisbon.
The fiction project, with the realization of João Maiaaddresses “the lives of young people within housing complexes, in disadvantaged socioeconomic conditions and very close to criminal life”.
Zé Pedro, who at the beginning of his majority “survives alone”, after his mother disappeared and his father was arrested, is the central figure of the plot.
Performed by Sandro FelicianoZé Pedro paints graffiti, dreaming of one day becoming a recognized visual artist, his goal is to go and study at an arts university outside of Portugal, something that would allow him to leave “an environment that oppresses him and that does not give him the possibility of leaving the underworld” of petty crime.
At a time when he is preparing for the exams that will allow him to get closer to his goal, “his best friend ever returns to the neighborhood, having just been released from prison”. The friend “pulls Zé Pedro back into the world he wants to leave”.
“He tries to resist this, but then there is the issue of loyalty, friendship and a series of adventures that lead to him getting into trouble, which he then has to get out of,” he said.
The central core of “O Homem do Leme” also features two female characters, Inês and Débora, “who, in addition to the disadvantaged social environment in which they live, still need to deal with structural machismo, and the violence that is associated with it” – and with Pina, “an old boxer who has a past also linked to crime, but which he has cleaned up”.
Pina has a boxing gym, where she “tries to pull young people out of the world of crime through sport.”
This is one of the points in this project where reality and fiction touch. The space that serves as the setting for the boxing gym in “O Homem do Leme” is the Academia Jorge Pinafrom the association created by boxer Jorge Pina, who in 2004 almost completely lost his vision, when he was preparing for the World Boxing Championship.
The association, based in Bairro do Armador, has the mission of promoting the social inclusion of disadvantaged children and young people, as well as those with special educational needs, through sport.
In addition to Bairro do Armador, in the Chelas area, “O Homem do Leme” also takes place in the Quinta do Cabrinha neighborhood, in Alcântara, which in fiction are geographically close to each other and not in opposite areas of the city.
Xutos themes “rearranged”
As it is a musical, the music of Xutos & Pontapés is present in several moments. The themes were ‘rearranged’ by the musician and producer Armando Teixeiramusical director of the project, and are played by the actors themselves.
According to Mário Cunha, some songs were “very different”, and others “a little closer” to the originals.
In addition to the versions of ‘Xutos’ songs, “O Homem do Leme” has an original theme, with lyrics by Mário Cunha and music by Armando Teixeira.
Looking at “the vast ‘Xutos’ songbook and finding ten songs that fit the story, whose lyrics and theme had to do with what the characters were going through”, was “a great challenge” for Mário Cunha.
The soundtrack inevitably includes “Homem do Leme”, the song that gives the project its title, and others such as “Remar Remar”, “Barcos Gregos”, “Circo de Feras” and “Sémen”.
The screenwriter explained that in the moments when the music enters the story, “it is as if time stops and you enter a fantasy moment, a dream moment, within a very raw reality”.
“Touchpoints”
In his “first great experience” outside of theater, Sandro Feliciano ends up reconciling two worlds in which he moves: acting and music.
The actor released Malammore’s first album earlier this year, “Aurora”, presented as an autobiographical narrative and a testimony about the experience of being a young black man in Portugal.
Sandro Feliciano believes that the experience he is having recording “O Homem do Leme” can “give rise to new songs, new projects, new visions, new knowledge”.
The role of Zé Pedro is “very challenging in several aspects”, especially because “the whole project is a different project, a musical”.
“Right then it forced me to take other paths as well. We had vocal, dance and also boxing preparation, with Jorge Pina”, he told Lusa, during a break from filming.
Although Sandro Feliciano’s life experience is very different from that of the character he plays in the project, the actor has felt “many points of contact” with reality and the people he has encountered.
“There are a lot of points of contact really, because ‘we all come from the same place’. I think the black community instantly finds a relationship when they see a similar one. There are experiences that are common, even though I lived outside of a housing project and grew up far from the environment I’m in now,” he shared.
In addition to experiences, Sandro Feliciano also feels that “there are many references that are common”. “What there isn’t is the community spirit that exists here, for example, I have never experienced this community spirit,” he said.
Born in Portugal, son of Cape Verdean parents, Sandro Feliciano was adopted, at the age of two, by a white Portuguese couple.
At the age of seven he started in theater, at Grémio Dramático Povoense, in Póvoa de Santa Iria (Vila Franca de Xira). He later entered the Cascais Professional Theater School and, at the age of 16, while still studying, he was part of the cast of “Casa Portuguesa”, a play by Pedro Penim premiered in 2022 at the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, and later presented in several Portuguese and foreign cities.
If he had not been adopted, the actor is “sure” that his life would have been different. Although he was born in a social neighborhood, Sandro Feliciano has no memory of that time. In the experience in “O Homem do Leme”, it has been felt that the neighborhood “is a very closed thing”.
“Not the people. People are open, they like to get to know each other, but the entire neighborhood is closed. And society itself also closes the neighborhoods, in many aspects, in many things. And as will also happen with these characters, everything blocks. Having an address here seems to mean something right away, instantly, and something negative, never positive”, he said.
“O Homem do Leme”, a SkyDreams production for RTP with no scheduled release date yet, features professional actors such as Pedro Hossi, Mariana Cardoso, Mina Andala and Luís Henrique Matos, as well as Sandro Feliciano, as well as amateurs, inhabitants of Chelas.
