A hora da estrela (Sternstunde)

Macabéa doesn’t know much about the world or the things that are generally considered important. Her idea of happiness, too, has a shockingly simple quality to it: cola. So it is no surprise that, despite a promising start, her life has continued to deteriorate since she moved from rural north-eastern Brazil to São Paulo – yet Macabéa does not despair. She is one of many millions of good-natured people who inhabit this planet in circumstances that can only be described as unworthy of them. Suzana Amaral got to know some of them whilst making a TV feature on female workers in São Paulo, and recognised them in the writings of the great (Ukrainian-born) Clarice Lispector, whose classic novel of the same name about the longings of the exploited she has adapted here. One should be wary of reading Macabéa’s story solely as a proletarian one. (O.M.)