by Eleanor Mannikka
synopsis
This film is a mix of 1971 footage of Jose Martínez-Correía's stage production of O Rei da Vela, and three additional years of shooting between 1979-1982, the whole put together in a series of somewhat arbitrary images. Although the story behind this bewildering film is based on a man who sells candles and gets involved both with the Brazilian rural aristocracy and the Americans, the principle director and writer of Rei Da Vela, Martínez-Correía (with Noilton Nuñes) has modified this basic plot. He has combined a history of his own fight for freedom of expression. (Martínez-Correía was exiled to Europe for a few years at the beginning of the 1970s for his political activities).
