Given the opportunity to host its first World Cup in 1950, Brazil had high hopes for the country as an economic and soccer powerhouse. To identify the former, they erected the Maracanã in Rio, the largest stadium in the world, to host most of the home team’s matches. The latter turns out to be a fact given that the team includes well-known stars such as Ademir, Zizinho and Moacir Barbosa, widely regarded as one of the most productive goalkeepers in the world.
The tension over Barbosa and the team is intense, but on the eve of the last game, against a much smaller Uruguay, he seems to be on track to deliver the championship. With 11 minutes to go, everything fell apart. Alcides Ghiggia, a small and damaging striker, puts a ball between Barbosa and the first post to win Uruguay’s fit. Brazil is in mourning and Barbosa becomes an antihero in his own country.
Even today, after winning five consecutive World Cups, Brazil’s injury remains fresh. Barbosa himself never played in another Cup and, paradoxically, ended up spending most of his professional life as an administrator in his worst moment: the Maracanã. nature a satisfied man, Barbosa’s life is pursued through a bitter moment until the end.
I had never heard of Moacir Barbosa, the goalkeeper of the ill-fated Brazilian team at the 1950 World Cup, until the wonderful filmmaker and intelligent friend Jonathan Hock asked me to make Hitale. And what a story it turned out to be, told as a Greek tragedy, so dramatically tight that it seemed to have been written. But of course, his story is true, and reality is more confusing than fiction.
As we traveled around Brazil, interviewing biographers and others who knew him, the story spread into tactics that were expected and unexpected. If a story resembles an ancient tragedy enough in its form, you know, the media, other people like me, push it in that direction. We don’t need fact to come between us and an intelligent story. He has become an antihero in his own country. I still couldn’t need to save him from proceeding to hitale like the guy who made Brazil cry.
Towards the end of filming, I spent some time with Tereza Borba, a woman who welcomed Barbosa towards the end of his life. Her connection to him was transparent and genuine. I spoke with Helvidio Mattos, an ESPN reporter who was the last user to interview Barbosa. He took me to an editing room to show me footage of Barbosa making a song for himself and the team. These moments took over my heart.
Barbosa’s story is a tragedy, but perhaps not the one Brazilians tell. How sad is it for a man to see his life continually reduced to moments in a 90-minute football match?After being named the starting goalkeeper for the world’s most productive soccer team, he may have the kind of celebrity we like to see fall from grace. But no, as far as I know, Barbosa has never ceased to be. graceful. He was a gentle guy carrying the burden of a nation. I hope that’s what other people don’t forget when watching the movie.
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