CORPO ELETRICO/BODY ELECTRIC

Brazil, 2017, 87 minutes, Colour.
Kelner Macedo, Lucas Andrade, Welket Bungue, Ronaldo Serruya.
Directed by Marcelo Caetano.

In the original film, Fame, the lyrics of one of the songs began “I sing the body electric…�. Though, there is no reference to this in this film.

This is a film made for gay audiences in Brazil and throughout the world. It is a character portrait rather than a developing narrative, glimpses of a life and its background and, then, suddenly ending.

One of the strengths of the film is actually the background. The young man, Elias (Kelner Macedo) works in a garment factory in São Paolo. The film gives a great deal of attention to the factory and the workers, the women at their sewing machines, the designers in their rooms and offices, the cutting of the fabrics, the plans for sales. There are also bonds between many of the workers and they are shown going out on the town, making agreements about working overtime before Christmas, many of them celebrating the summer at the beach.

Elias is shown as a genial young man of 23, good at his work and enjoying it, later asked by his boss if he had plans for the future, to set up his own company – but the young man of 23 has not given much thought even to his life in five years. He definitely lives in the present.


Elias is very cheerful, has a great number of partners, not particularly worried about relationships, commitment or permanency although he has lived with an older man to whom he returns for visits, especially and his house at the beach for the summer vacation.

Elias is also very forthcoming in discussing his relationships and the sexual encounters, an example where he is followed from a diner by a security agent at the mall who wants him to keep the encounter secret. There is also another young man at the factory, Wellington, who any career guidance counsellor would immediately notice that he has a propensity for becoming a Drag Queen – which he ultimately will do. He is also character of great verve – and very camp. Elias and Wellington also have a group of Drag Queen friends for whom they make costumes, have sexual liaisons, sometimes in groups.

So, the film focuses on the character of Elia’s and his carefree attitudes and not thinking of the future, always friendly and supportive. This is particularly so for a man who arrives from Guinnea Bissou to work in Brazil and send money back to his family. Always in the background is the realistic life of the city, sunny, extrovert, full of life.

And while the film does have explicit sexual encounter sequences, with the introduction of the group of Drag Queens it becomes particularly camp.

There is no major climax to the film although many of the workers assemble at the wealthy man’s summerhouse, swimming, a lot of drinking… And a festive occasion when one of the workers at the factory brings his fiancee, not quite aware of the atmosphere of the house, but is welcomed and treated to a celebratory ritual.

Will Elias return to work the next day as he should? Will he just go into the water and float? And that is where the film ends.