Buy PRIVATE 55 [T]he motivation of this work is the reconstruction of the emotional and spiritual ties that man has with the nature of Bahia, in Northeast Brazil. Here, an organic relationship between the magical “cosmovision” of the indigenous world coexists with the carnal and spiritual universe brought by slaves centuries ago.
It is said that this place is where earth and heaven meet. Here humans dress up to cheat death or die in the ecstasy of their endless dance, always culminating in the last fable to contradict existence. Dying, playing like children, dressed in shiny beads, with ragged hats and eating fruit brought from the womb of sadness or from a last paradise that seems nonexistent.
I agree, you never know what is truth and what is legend in Bahia. Here, lyrical mystery and tragic poverty are mixed with reality and fiction. Here, life unfolds as an imaginary melodrama of eternal beauty and sensuality that hide a world of misery and pain.
In this cinematic exploration, I have been looking for those metaphorical conjunctions that are hidden in everyday life, with a purpose of creating an original map of the visual poetics of our time.
(Sebastian Liste | Bahia, PRIVATE 55, pages 66-69)