Perdidas Ilusões

From the Agreste to the sea, the Capibaribe River inspires the poetry of João Cabral de Melo Neto and the dance of Deborah Colker. This documentary is a road movie in which performance, the body, and poetry fuel a journey that begins at the river’s source and flows out to the open sea, moving between the arid landscape and the ocean, between devastation and what endures.

The quiet life of the small town Piedade's inhabitants is shaken up by the arrival of a big oil company, which barges in taking over houses and local businesses, throwing everyone out, to better reach and use the area's natural resources.

Filmmakers Cláudio Assis and Lírio Ferreira go on a journey through the frontier between the states of Pernambuco and Paraíba, Brazil, to show the importance poetry holds in local culture.