Il fuoco della resistenza - La vera storia di Chico Mendes

"The Burning Season" is a very moving film. It tells the story of real-life Amazon rainforest activist Chico Mendes, who was murdered in the mid-eighties because of his work.

The film shows the life of rubber tappers in Brazil, a trade handed down through generations. Its existence is threatened by rogue cattle barons and other industrial pirates, who want to burn the rainforest to make way for their plans. Mendes and his followers counter the developers with their numbers and their bodies. They adopt a program of civil disobedience, much as Gandhi's followers did in "Gandhi."

Raul Julia gives an impassioned performance as Mendes, with several moments that are breathtaking in their intensity. I heard that he lost thirty or more pounds for this role, and it shows. It is a tragedy that Julia did not live long after filming "The Burning Season" - with this as evidence, there was so much more to him than "Addams Family" re-makes. One can see from the look in Julia's eyes that he is totally locked in during the film.