Tabu plot
Director Bressane creates an imaginary encounter between three 20th century geniuses, portraying composer Lamartine Babo, revolutionary author Oswald De Andrade, and incendiary journalist Joao Do Rio. Lamartine Babo was a highly refined composer, rooted in the samba tradition, but best known for the greatest carnival hits of all time. Oswald De Andrade revolutionized Brazilian literature and, in the 1920s, led the illustrious magazine Semana de Arte Moderna in Sao Paulo. His caustic critical look at Brazil culminated in the epic Macunaima, the most influential book of the time and still regarded as a turning point in Latin American literature. Joao Do Rio is a prolific journalist whose chronicles of turn-of-the-century Rio wreaked havoc on politicians and other celebrities. He was the 'peerless archetype of those dark times: mulatto, fat and homosexual.