Pernambuco, North-east Brazil – 1942
On the run
Pernambuco, North-east Brazil.It is hot, very hot, and dry. Even the river has dried up. It is almost a desert here; everywhere you see cacti and thorn bushes. The road is bumpy, dusty and full of loose stones. Johann is driving his truck. On the sides it is painted: 'Aspirinas: O Fim de Todos os Males' ('Aspirins will remove all your ailments'). In every village he stops and builds a tent, and in the evening he shows a movie about Rio de Janeiro: huge blocks of apartment buildings, luxury cars, and Carnival. Next, advertisements for aspirin. The newest cure-all against cold, flu, headache, hangover, love-sickness, and whatever causes you pain. After the screening he sells many tins of aspirin. The next morning he continues travelling.
Pernambuco, North-east Brazil.On the road, he picks up poor peasants who ask for a ride: a man with a big rifle, who gets out quickly because he sees an animal that he likes to shoot; an older woman with a chicken; a beautiful by sad young woman; and a gruff young man.
– 'What do you sell?' asks the young man.
– 'Medicines, aspirin, it helps with all sorts of diseases.'
– 'Really? When it helps against hunger, you will become rich here.'
Pernambuco, North-east Brazil.The man is called Ranulpho. When he opens his mouth, a negative remark falls out of it.
– 'Are you always like that?' asks Johann.
– 'What do you mean?'
– 'So bitter.'
– 'You know, I come from such a hole: five houses and a big cross in the middle. Nobody on the streets. Nothing is happening there. Nothing at all.'
– 'Well.'
– 'One day, I knew what to do: today I leave! And I left, going to Rio de Janeiro, or something.'
– 'When you don't find a job or a place to stay?'
– 'I will manage. No matter what, I will not go back. They laugh at you, when you come back. The bloody bastards. And you?'
– 'Me?'
– 'Yes. Where are you coming from?'
– 'From Germany, Europe. It is war there. I don't want to become a soldier, I don't want to die. At least there is no war here, you don't get bombs dropped on your head.'
– 'No, there is nothing at all here, not even war.'
Ranulpho and Johann, two young men on the run.
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Source
The movie Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus (2005) of the Brazilian film-maker Marcelo Gomes calmly shows the arid, red-hot rural areas of North-east Brazil.
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= the next page: The nightmare of Efock - a village in Senegal – 1942, story 100.
= the Table of contents, story 99.
