The ethnic-racial issue in the diegetics of the film Rio, 40 Graus and the dilemma of censorship

Abstract

The ethnic-racial issue in the diegetics of the film Rio, 40 Graus and the dilemma of censorship analyzes how the exposure of ethnic-racial issues in the film’s narrative had a strong impact on the censors of the time, who revealed the blackness of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas in the 1950s on the white screen of the cinema. Thus, censorship is presented as a government tool to control the aesthetic image of Brazil, hiding objective social realities such as poverty and racial inequality. By banning the film, the State sought to avoid the exposure of social tensions, but this repression mobilized critics and intellectuals in defense of freedom of expression, consolidating a strong civil society movement for democratization. The film on screen, therefore, became a symbol of resistance and a catalyst for debates on social rights, race, and class, challenging idealized narratives and promoting a reflection on Brazilian social reality.