Two countries named Brazil
"Maids"

One of the most important information to understand the reality of Brazil concerns to the great amount of women employed as maids in all states. No other working category has so many people. We also have to consider that many of them are not even registered officially. They are a part, for example, of an everyday situation of many people that can access and read this text in internet in Brazil.

They are so present in brazilian life that many times its people can hardly see them, feel their presence. One can even live without them, however, we are more and more aware of their importance in periods in which they are not in the houses, working (just like when they are on vacation or are changing jobs). Maids are living so close to brazilian people that they usually have the opportunity to be a part of memorable sequences of people´s history. Rarely, if so, they can leave behind the support roles in the movie of life.

We know nothing about their private life; We ask questions, find information about their familise, go to the places in which they live, try to help with the donation of clothes or food, but, we can never cross the line that define our relationship as a professional one. Many times I have got the sensation that we still keep relationship models based on the ones used on colonial times, between masters and slaves (of course that we don't punish the maids phisically like in the past, as well as other atrocities that came from authority abuse).

Fernando Meirelles, director of the successfull "City of God", tried to show us the daily routine of five different maids in the film entitled "Maids". Each one of them is involved with specific problems, however, living the same reality (that ressembles to brazilians what is seen on an everyday basis), true examples of social exclusion and inclusion at the same time.

What do I want to say with this? Just what I said a few paragraphs before, in this same text, when I was writing that maids were filled with responsabilities and became a part of our families, giving them acess to an universe characterized as bourgeois.

At the same time, I was stating that, at the moment in which they left these bourgeois houses, these brave and self-reliant women, become a part of an infamous universe, resourceless, caring for better options and possibilities, surrounded by incomprehension and disregard, characterized by violence and poverty. These are two sides of the same coin, that compose, in a very clear way, the reality of Brazil. That brazilians in a better economical situation see from the windows of their cars, on the television news, through the internet websites. A world which is known by the maids (a better knowledge, by the way), because they are living this dubiouness as close as possible…

The Movie

"Maids" make us get in touch with five different stories. All of them are led by a maid, of course. Each one of them living an specific dream. Directors Meirelles and Olival tried to show how is the everyday life more than focus on the maids dreams. The directors tried to work with the contrast between working on middle class houses and, at the end of the day (and weekends), live in the hard and discomfort of poor and violent neighborhoods.

The dreams of the maids Cida, Roxane, Quitéria, Raimunda and Créo goes from the traditional wish of finding and getting married to a prince from fairy tales, the possibility of ascending to a (much) better social and economical condition and, even, the idea of becoming a model or television actress.

The reference to her dreams don't hide the disillusion with life, between brooms, pressing irons, washing machines and pans. Sadness and conformity which we can realize on the statemens of one of them, in a certain moment of the movie; she says that all of them, with no exception, wanted to be in a much better profession, that could give them a better payment and more consideration; she completes her phrase saying that no one wants to be a maid and that they turn out to work as maids because of life's contingences…

It's a movie to laugh and cry! A comedy that make us think and look with attention to our life conceptions and attitudes! Another prodigy by Fernando Meirelles.

For Teachers

1- An outstanding oportunity to understand the title of this article begins with the presentation of the movie to the students. From this moment on, their duty turns out to be finding out information about the world in which maids live in. It can be made based on interviews, field researches, reading books about this subject, searching for information in the internet or finding articles published in the newspapers or magazines.

2- Another alternative given by the movie refers to the possibility of exploring the diversity of the major cities of Brazil. Finding out the traditional comercial centers, the poor neighborhoods, the luxury areas, the industrial zones, the agricultural belts around the town. How many cities are there in each one of the brazilian metropolis? What are these cities like? Which ones are the major problems of each? What are the advantages os living in those neighborhood-cities?

3- A good task could be finding out the meaning of the word dignity. The relationship between people should be based only on a social and economical ground or could it be established based on respect and dignity? After all, what is the meaning of this word that we see, listen to, speak and write so many times? Is it just another word that mechanically became a part of the world after the French Revolution or can it be really representative (meaningful) in people's relations?

4- What are the other cultural productions that show the universe of the maids? Is there specific literature about this subject? Using this material that you could find, is it possible to compare the life of the maids with othe professionals or other periods of history? What about trying to make comparisons to truly understand the life of those women?

João Luís Almeida Machado
Master Degree in Education, Arts and History of Culture (Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, in São Paulo); Professor at Faculdade Senac in Campos do Jordão; Middle and High School teacher; writes weekly columns for the website Planeta Educação

Send e-mails, comments, suggestions and critics for:
profjoaoluis@planetaeducacao.com.br

Technical Information

Maids
(Domésticas - O Filme)

Country/Year of production:- Brazil, 2001
Lenght of time/Gender:- 85 min., Comedy
Director: Fernando Meirelles and Nando Olival
Screenwriter: Cecília Homem de Mello, Fernando Meirelles, Nando Olival and Renata Melo, based on a play by Renata Melo
Cast:- Graziella Moretto, Cláudia Missura, Lena Roque, Olívia Araújo, Renata Melo, Robson Nunes e Tiago Moraes

Links (in Portuguese)
- http://www.domesticasofilme.com (official website)
- http://www.adorocinema.com/filmes/domesticas/domesticas.htm
- http://www.cineclick.com.br/criticas/index_texto.php?id_critica=302
- http://e-pipoca.cidadeinternet.com.br/filmes_zoom.cfm?id=2238