Festivals - Fantasia 2020 : Ivan, the Terrirble, World Premiere

By Mulder, 09 august 2020

The ribald cousin of José Mojica Marins, Ivan Cardoso, is the great undiscovered figure of Brazilian genre cinema. For the first time, with Ivan, the Terrirble, he speaks on camera about his life and films. Blending comedy, horror and sex, Cardoso established himself as one of Brazil's greatest genre filmmakers with movies like Nosferatu in Brazi (1970), The Secret of the Mummy (1982), and Seven Vampires (1986). In a decades-spanning career, Cardoso blended radical aesthetics with lowbrow ambitions – often playfully injecting disruptive techniques that are typically associated with politics into his more loose form and playful films. Mixing influences as disparate as Roger Corman and radical leftist poetry, he pioneered a style of filmmaking called Terrir (a play on the word terror, and the Portuguese phrase to laugh). While little known outside of Brazil, he is undoubtedly one of the country's greatest horror filmmakers.

Intercut with playful animation and a variety of clips, Ivan, the Terrirble is both a crash course on Brazil's best-kept genre secret and a fun homage for his biggest fans. The tone of the documentary perfectly captures Cardosa's trickster spirit, using collages and hyper-kinetic editing. With Brazil's cinematic past and present under threat under Bolsonaro, Ivan, the Terrirble emerges during a moment of national reflection about the importance of art and liberty under political oppression. A filmmaker long overdue for discovery, director Mario Abbade presents a generous and playful tribute to a living legend that will leave you craving a late-night marathon of Cardoso's sexy and scary classics. – Justine Smith

Ivan, the Terrirble
Directed by Mario Abbade
Produced by Mario Abbade, Priscila Miranda do Rosário
Written by Mario Abbade, Leonardo Luiz Ferrreira
Cinematography : Arthur Sherman
Edited by : Christian Caselli, Gurcius Gewdner
Production company : Abbade Entretenimento
Running time : 103mns

(Source : Fantasia 2020 official website)