TERROR: TORTURE AND TERRORISM OF STATE IN LAMARCA AND IDEOLOGIA

Resumo

Throughout the history of humankind, torture and corporal punishment were used for different purposes. During the Middle Ages, in Europe, torture was used to exercise social control, first by the Inquisition, and later also by State forces. In the last century, however, torture has been strongly opposed both in official discourse and in international law. Nevertheless, there are still numerous reports of its use around the world in police investigations, both as punishment or in clandestine actions. In the Brazilian context of military dictatorship, physical and mental torture of political dissidents by members of the police and armed forces became routine. The secret abduction, torture and killing of militants were accompanied by a public campaign designed to produce collective fear of the so called “terrorists”. This context is recreated in Lamarca (Rezende 1994), showing in detail the sophisticated "industry" of torture during the military dictatorship in Brazil. Through the story of Carlos Lamarca, the film also portrays the relationship between the Brazilian army and DOPS, exposing how torture was used to extract information and how the secret police operated. In contrast, the film Ideologia (Marins 1968) manages to capture the feeling of collective fear without making any explicit mention to the dictatorship. Such effect is achieved through the film’s abundant metaphorical language, rich in horror and terror elements.