User Reviews

The opening titles quickly warn us that Marimbás are people who live of fishing but they're not fishermen. At first, such presentation seems confusing since it seems impossible to find a difference between function and what it accomplishes. But the film manages to elucidate a certain similarity and why one line of work isn't exactly like the other. The only film directed by the late journalist Vladimir Herzog is a fine piece of material that reveals a portion of life hardly presented in films or documentaries (I was reminded of Glauber Rocha's "Barravento" in some parts). "Marimbás" are common poor people whose only source of income comes from catching fish at the Rio de Janeiro's beaches right next to the classy bathers, who are also potential clients who buy the product minutes after they get out of water. Sure, they have their boats, their improvised nets, don't get paid a lot but it's all they have. Their methods are quite rustic, no cleaning or quality preparation of the fishes (you see a lady buying some right after it was in the sand for some time) but it's all they have - the younger ones manage to use the profit to sell soda on the other side of the beach. They're not legal in being in there, regular fisherman aren't there as well neither authorities to kick them out so...they get all what they want on a good sunny day. Herzog and his team captured nice and memorable images, letting the main characters explain about their labor and no input from a narrator came during the film. However, I was expecting a little more - maybe some views inside the boat, how they manage to catch the fish, or even some conflict they might have with costumers or authorities (it might have happened, I wonder). We get to make our judgments, thoughts and that's why it's worth seeing this film, one of the last examples of how free and open cinema was in the early 1960's just a little before military regime, censorship of all media and communication forms, one that took away the life of this film's director in 1975, brutally murdered during a preposterous detaining. Herzog could have had a great future as filmmaker but journalism was his passion and he fulfilled with heart and soul. The short deserves a view. 7/10