Please note: This was screened in July 2025
After decades of celebrated work across Europe (including Britain's GPO Film Unit and Ealing Studios), Alberto Cavalcanti returned to his native Brazil in the 1950s, where he directed this stylish twist on the popular musical-comedy chanchada genre — rarely screened internationally and now beautifully restored in 4K.
Starring country singer Inezita Barroso in a spectacular screen debut, Mulher de Verdade follows Amelia, a hospital nurse torn between two husbands: one a reformed petty thief, the other a dashing playboy. But beneath the screwball set-up lies a pointed critique of the rigid class structure and patriarchal values of postwar Brazil. With his signature subversive wit, Cavalcanti exposes the everyday realities in which a woman’s choices are shaped — and stifled — by gender norms and social constraints. The film also features one of Brazilian cinema’s first non-stereotypical portrayals of a drag performer, played by Ivaná — a pioneering figure of Rio de Janeiro’s vaudeville scene.
Dismissed for decades in the shadow of Cinema Novo, Cavalcanti's Brazilian films are now being reappraised as sophisticated, socially incisive works from one of world cinema’s most cosmopolitan auteurs. Selected as the most deserving title for restoration at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival, Mulher de Verdade is a satirical portrait of a country on the cusp of profound change — now finally returned to the screen.
The 4K digital restoration was conducted for Locarno Heritage by Cinegrell Postproduction GmbH in Zurich, with Nicole T. Allemann (Project Coordination and Colour Grading), Ursula Deiss (Digital Restoration), Peter Matthies (Film Preparation and Scanning), and Daniel Nestler (Sound Restoration). The project was carried out in collaboration with Cinemateca Brasileira, Sociedade Amigos da Cinemateca, Locarno's Heritage Online project, and Cinematográfica Maristela.
Presented by co-curator André Sirangelo as part of Other Ways of Seeing, with support from BFI Awarding Funds from National Lottery.