Encerramentos físicos, movimentos afetivos e re-existências: O que é isso, companheiro? e Ainda estou aqui

Abstract

We investigate the aesthetic space and the anesthetic landscape through the Brazilian films O que é isso, companheiro? (Bruno Barreto, 1997) and Ainda estou aqui (Walter Salles, 2024), which address the years of dictatorship in the country (1964–1985). We discuss how the aesthetic arrangements of both films constitute a transgression of the automated way of life imposed by the political regime, toward an aesthetic way of life, thus presenting a possibility of re-existing. To this end, the analysis emphasizes how the dungeon-house (Fischer, 2006) and the shell-house (Bachelard, 1989) allude to dictatorial politics and articulate forms and modes of family coexistence that take shape as anesthetic landscapes (dungeon-house); or, on the other hand, how images of ruptures, escapes, and fractures of these anesthetic rigidities overcome the automation of daily life and oppressive grids, re-appropriate, imagetically, the dwelling place as a propeller of sensitive experiences, and are constituted as aesthetic spaces (shell-house).