Image and allegory in Sylvio Back's cinema: Ana's case

Abstract

This paper discusses allegorical meanings of cinematic image. The object of analysis is the movie. A Guerra dos Pelados (Sylvio Back, 1971). It is a historical film about the Contestado War. Its subject is the peasants' resistance. They were expelled from their land and resist the oppression of farmers and industrial owners in the region. In the movie's narrative, we analyze the symbolic meaning of the character Ana, a young peasant woman. The image of Ana is a possible key for interpreting the movie. The different stages of the plot are related to the stages in her life. The director's choice to demarcate the movie stages from transformations in a woman's image is a rhetorical option. He uses this image as an allegory that expresses multiple meanings