Ruy Guerra

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Guerra and the second or paternal family name is Coelho Pereira.

Ruy Guerra
Guerra in 2010
Born	Ruy Alexandre Guerra Coelho Pereira (1931-08-22) August 22, 1931 Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique (present-day Maputo, Mozambique)
Citizenship	Portugal Brazil
Occupations	Film director screenwriter
Years active	1954–present
Movement	Cinema Novo
Spouses	Nara Leão ​ ​ (m. 1962; sep. 1965)​ Leila Diniz ​ ​ (m. 1971; died 1972)​ Cláudia Ohana ​ ​ (m. 1981; div. 1984)​
Children	2

Ruy Alexandre Guerra Coelho Pereira (born August 22, 1931) is a Portuguese-Brazilian film director and screenwriter. Guerra was born a Portuguese citizen in Lourenço Marques (today Maputo) in Mozambique, when it was still a Portuguese colony.

Biography

Guerra studied at IDHEC film school in Paris from 1952. In 1958 he started his career as an assistant director in several French films. He subsequently immigrated to Brazil, where he directed his first feature film, Os Cafajestes (1962). It was entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival.

In 1964, Guerra directed Os Fuzis, which placed him in the forefront of the emerging Cinema Novo movement. The film was entered into the 14th Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Silver Bear Extraordinary Jury Prize.

After that he directed the international production Tendres Chasseurs (1969) starring Sterling Hayden, and Os Deuses e os Mortos (1970). The tumultuous political landscape in 1970's Brazil forced Guerra to stop filming until 1976, when he directed A Queda. The film was entered into the 28th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize.

In 1980 he returned to Mozambique where he shot Mueda, Memória e Massacre, that country's first feature film. While in Mozambique, Guerra shot many short films and helped the creation of the National Institute for Cinema.

In 1982 Guerra shot Eréndira in Mexico, based on the work by Gabriel García Márquez. He also directed the musical comedy A Ópera do Malandro (1985), based on Chico Buarque's free theatrical adaptation of Bertold Brecht's Threepenny Opera; the TV film Os Amores Difíceis, another adaptation of García Márquez; and Kuarup (1989). In 2000 Guerra's Estorvo was nominated for the Golden Palm at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. It was Guerra's third nomination in the festival, after Erêndira and Kuarup. His 2004 film Portugal S.A. was the only film he did in Portugal and entered into the 26th Moscow International Film Festival.

Guerra has appeared in many films as an actor; he is perhaps best known to international audiences for his performance as the doomed Pedro de Ursúa in Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972).

Personal life

In 1971, Guerra married Brazilian actress Leila Diniz. Diniz was killed the following year in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 471 in India.

Filmography

Key

†

Indicates a work made for TV

‡

Indicates a short film

List of films directed by Ruy Guerra

Year	Original title	English release title	Language(s)	Notes
1954	Quand Le Soleil Dort ‡		French	French production.
1962	Os Cafajestes	The Unscrupulous Ones / The Miscreants / The Hustlers	Portuguese	Guerra's first Brazilian production.
1964	Os Fuzis	The Guns	Portuguese	Brazilian-Argentinian co-production.
1969	Ternos Caçadores	Sweet Hunters / Jailbird	Portuguese, English	Brazilian-French-Panamanian co-production.
1970	Os Deuses e os Mortos	Of Gods and the Undead / Gods and the Dead	Portuguese
1978	A Queda	The Fall	Portuguese	Co-directed with Nelson Xavier.
1979	Mueda, Memória e Massacre	Mueda, Memory and Massacre	Portuguese	Mozambican production.
1981	Histoires extraordinaires ‡		French	French TV series. Director of La lettre volée episode.
1981	A Carta Roubada ‡		Portuguese	Portuguese production.
1983	Eréndira	Eréndira	Portuguese, Spanish	West German-French-Mexican co-production.
1986	Ópera do Malandro	Malandro	Portuguese	Brazilian-French co-production.
1987	Fábula de la Bella Palomera / A Bela Palomera	Fable of the Beautiful Pigeon Fancier	Portuguese	Brazilian-Spanish co-production.
1989	Kuarup	Kuarup	Portuguese
1992	Me Alquilo Para Soñar		Spanish	Cuban-Spanish co-production. TV miniseries, 6 episodes.
2000	Monsanto	Monsanto	Portuguese	Portuguese production. TV movie.
2000	Estorvo	Turbulence	Portuguese	Brazilian-Cuban-Portuguese co-production.
2004	Portugal S.A.	Portugal S.A.	Portuguese	Portuguese production.
2006	O Veneno da Madrugada	In Evil Hour	Portuguese, Spanish	Brazilian-Argentinian-Portuguese co-production.
2018	Quase Memória	Oblivious Memory	Portuguese

See also

• S.O.S. Noronha (1957)

Further reading

• Schneider, Steven Jay, ed. (2007). 501 Movie Directors. London: Cassell Illustrated. p. 349. ISBN 9781844035731. OCLC 1347156402.

External links

• Ruy Guerra at IMDb