Pretending to Be Me

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I'm in the midst of (yet another) identity crisis. This particular one was brought about by a remarkable film I saw the other day called "Jogo de Cena," in which filmmaker Eduardo Coutinho (see my post on Brazilian documentaries below) goes quite a few steps beyond merely recording the daily lives of ordinary people. This time around he combines real interviews with fake ones, except that the actresses are playing the roles of the women he's talking to (who actually responded to a newspaper ad looking for women who would like to tell their stories on camera). I got quite dizzy and with two exceptions could not tell who was who. The only clue was given by a famous face I recognized: according to her, if the woman is trying to hide her tears, if she's constantly wiping her face, then she's the real thing, because actors will let the tears flow for everyone to see. The stories are all very dramatic and even traumatic at times and there's plenty of crying (but they also make you laugh). I left the theater deep in thought. To what extent do we play-act in our daily lives and am I playing the part of the expat gringa? Who am I really, a stranger in a strange land trying to fit in or a prodigal daughter making an effort to remember what it is like to be Brazilian?

While I ponder this question (and I'm not sure I'll come up with an answer anytime soon) you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

The tree pictured here is the very fragrant manacá. Its sweet-smelling flowers in hues of purple and periwinkle have again become part of springtime for me. I miss the lilacs at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, but not all is lost, as you can see!