With just over two weeks to go before the Brazilian team’s debut in the World Cup, on June 13th against Morocco, in the United States, Netflix airs, this Friday (29th), a series directly related to the theme, with timing that resembles a perfect kick.
The docudrama “Brasil 70 – A Saga do Tri” tells the trajectory of the Canarian team, which foundered miserably in the 1966 World Cup, in England —elimination in the group stage after being champion in 1958 and 1962—, towards the unlikely conquest of the third world championship, winning the coveted Jules Rimet Cup in the 1970 World Cup, in Mexico.
Note that it is not a documentary, as emphasized by directors Paulo and Pedro Morelli, father and son, in an interview with Sheet at the production launch event, in a ceremony at the Palmeiras stadium, in São Paulo. It is a fiction based on facts, with actors representing characters such as Pelé, Carlos Alberto Torres, Tostão, Rivellino, Zagallo, João Saldanha, João Havelange.
Thus, to the question “were dialogues and scenes invented?”, came this answer from Paulo: “Yes, a little, yes”.
“We don’t know what the original dialogue was, right?”, continued one of the founders of the production company O2 Filmes. “We recreated dialogues, imagined scenes, but always respecting reality, to get as close to reality as possible.”
Pedro emphasized that the preparation for “Brazil 70” sought maximum proximity to reality through research, reports and books. The fantasy creation was used for dramatic purposes, permitted and desired in the creation of the work.
“It’s the time when you want what there is no report [histórico] about something and you’re missing some little piece for you to add to that dramatic curve of the character, or for you to be able to better detail the feeling that the character had at a given moment. You need to fictionalize, you need to create, but within researched bases.”
The study is evident in a comment by Bruno Mazzeo, who played Zagallo in the series, when the report asked, having taken for granted that it was fiction, about the moment when the national team coach sees his voice failing, gradually disappearing, in the final stretch of the World Cup. “It happened, he actually lost his voice. I found out from the writers.”
Actor who played Pelé in the series, Lucas Agrícola, with an astonishing resemblance to the King of Football, reinforces that what may initially be seen as fictional actually happened. An episode in the star’s childhood marked him deeply and affected him emotionally in “Brasil 70”. According to the actor, who even mentioned the name of the character involved (“the boy was called Tiago”), “this story was very real, yes.”
There is a Pele there [na série] that the public has never seen, which is the most human part of him. People know him [sic] like a star and such. But his traumas, we bring all his traumas. In the end, he reveals to Saldanha what he has always carried
The intersection between imagination and veracity gives results. It makes the five-episode series attractive for those who know the events and want to see them again in an emotional and heated way. And it is inviting for those who know little or nothing about them, as it does not simply involve football, but football’s relationship with the military dictatorship in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This background is very present.
“Brazil 70” remembers how the government of Emílio Garrastazu Médici sought to appropriate the image of the Brazilian team to promote the “Brazil that works” and divert the population’s attention from the violence and repression experienced throughout the country in the so-called “years of lead”. Political tension on the surface, the effect of austerity on one’s own skin.
In one of the episodes, João Saldanha, played by Rodrigo Santoro, ironically boasts: “Better 100 thousand in the stadium than 100 thousand on the streets”. Journalist and communist, the coach took over the team in a situation of deep sporting crisis. Determined to change the situation, he called up the “beasts of Saldanha” and, with a perfect campaign, qualified Brazil for the World Cup.
How can a communist head the national team in a country under a dictatorship? Not even Saldanha could explain the antithesis. Versions report that the regime, by placing him in office, would dampen the sharp tongue directed at the military. It would also lessen the fury of the press — as Saldanha was in the middle — against a writing that was not performing. It didn’t dampen, and the coach was removed three months before the World Cup, giving way to Zagallo.
Santoro, an already established actor, rocks as João Sem Medo, evaluates Marcelo Adnet, who, in the role of the fictional announcer Eusébio Teixeira, is paired throughout “Brasil 70”, with the dissident and inveterate smoker Saldanha. One narrates, the other comments, in the stadium, Brazil’s matches in Mexico.
“It wasn’t Rodrigo Santoro. Rodrigo incorporated João Saldanha, he became João Saldanha, one of my idols. And I was really by his side. I really narrated the 70’s World Cup” said comedian Adnet, who, as a child, had the dream of being a football narrator.
Adnet highlighted the difficulty of impersonating a TV announcer in the 1970 World Cup. There was a lack of study material, as it was a time of transition from radio to television. Furthermore, the narrator speaks to the spectators watching the game. Not in his case. “I had to narrate without having a game in front of me. So I memorized the play in my head and looked where I had to look, with that play playing in my head.”
The plays, narrated by Eusébio Teixeira, are one of the strong points of “Brasil 70”, which was recorded in Brazil and Mexico. With never-before-seen angles, ultra-realistic sound and a successful slow motion effect that freezes and then continues, the Morellis managed to elevate their realism.
“We placed the camera on the field, next to the player, running with the player and feeling his breathing, feeling the player’s dialogue on the field, placing the viewer on the field and not from the distant point of view that we are used to seeing from the angle of a television that broadcasts from afar”, said Paulo Morelli.
The goals that Pelé almost missed – against Czechoslovakia, England and Uruguay – are chilling, as is the play for Brazil’s last goal, by “captain” Carlos Alberto, in the final against Italy.
Yes, Brazil won, it is known, and the participants of “Brazil 70” say they hope that the current team, discredited like the post-66 team, will watch the saga of the tri to be inspired in the search for the sixth.
“The series brings something about the essence of football, the soul of football and the pleasure of playing football. That’s what those guys [do time de 1970] they had,” says Mazzeo.
Another expectation, in the words of Pedro Morelli, is for the country to be able to support Vinicius Junior, Casemiro, Neymar and company together.
“The yellow shirt, for eight years now, has been used by a group and has lost its meaning. This World Cup is probably the moment when the whole of Brazil, all people, regardless of political position, will reappropriate the shirt, be proud to wear this shirt. I think the series is part of that history.”
If Brazil does not unite and triumph, Saldanha’s famous phrase will remain, in a mournful murmur or a loud cry: “Life goes on”.
