ABSTRACT
Lucia Murat’s 2005 documentary Olhar estrangeiro is based on a book by academic Tunico Aancio, O Brasil dos gringos: imagens no cinema, an absorbing monograph that contains an exhaustive list of films made by foreign film directors that are set in, or include significant references to Brazil. Some of Murat’s interviewees play down the significance of the errors, while others attempt to explain them away by claiming that filmmakers have licence to present fantasy spaces on screen. A further “omission” in Murat’s film can be traced in part to the scholarly text on which the documentary is based. Within the pantheon of foreign films that trouble critics for their inaccurate representation of Brazil, it is interesting to note that critically acclaimed, award-winning films will often escape the full brunt of criticism. Drugs culture and its attendant violence are arguably a bigger issue for Brazil to deal with in terms of its international image.
