Freedom and the Competing Moralities of "Behind the Sun"

Jonathan Jacoby

Walter Salles’ film "Behind the Sun" contemplates the possibility of liberation from a system of traditional values that denies individual will. Literally entitled "Broken April", the film features a young man named Tonio - played by renowned Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro - who feels trapped in a way of life that he finds unsatisfying and indeed absurd. Against the backdrop of rural life in the northeast of Brazil, Tonio seeks to avoid the gloomy fate of his ancestors, who have long engaged in a senseless battle with the neighboring family over control of the land. Tonio’s quest for liberation can be seen through the lens of nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who embraced a notion of freedom that resonates with Tonio’s situation. Strung throughout Nietzsche’s writings is a sharp rejection of traditional morality. He repudiates the system of old values that privileges the weak collective over the strong individual. Nietzsche considers the creation of one’s own system of values and meanings - rather than adherence to those that society prescribes – to be the realization of human potential. In his trenchant book The Gay Science, he conceives of freedom and self-affirmation as follows: "[f]or an individual to posit his own ideal and to derive from it his own law, joys, and rights." (191) At the end of "Behind the Sun", Tonio succeeds in charting a personal course away from the suffocating effect of his family’s traditional morality and toward the liberating and life-affirming effect of a new and more personal moral code.

The context for Tonio’s achievement of freedom is the perpetual feud between his family and that of his neighbors. From the outset of the film, we observe the practice of vendetta that orders moral life in this rural backwater of a century ago. Strict rules govern the maintenance of family honor: a family member kills a member of the other family, revenge is sought under certain terms and conditions, and the cycle of violence continues ad infinitum. The family feud is the traditional means of restoring moral order, symbolized visually by the blood on the victim’s shirt. The deceased’s family members watch intently for the red of life and vitality to fade into the yellow of death and decay, thereby signaling that the time for revenge has arrived. That this murderous ritual of justice is blindly replicated by each generation suggests that the dead have significant command over the fate of the living.

The adherents of this traditional morality - a golden rule based on family honor through retribution - do not dare question it. Indeed, toward the beginning of the film, Tonio carries out his duty by stalking one of his neighbors relentlessly in the fields. The chase occurs at a breakneck pace as the target runs to save his life. But ultimately, Tonio fires his rifle at the other man’s chest, striking him down. The entire scene evokes a confrontation of animals in the jungle, with the predator eventually catching his prey and devouring it. The neighboring family soon holds a funeral for its fallen relative. In one of the most complex and remarkable scenes in the film, Tonio and his father pay their respects to their aggrieved enemies - the more humanistic side of the feud ritual. The interaction between the families is formal and intense. Tonio appeals to the patriarch of the neighbors for a ceasefire, but the suggestion is met with disdain. Lest the chain of vendetta be disrupted, the old man assures Tonio that he, too, will be hunted down and killed once the full moon appears.

Fearful and probing, Tonio begins to doubt the logic of this form of conflict resolution soon after slaying his target. He is reluctant to sacrifice his life for an inter-familial institution that he finds intangible and incomprehensible. Meanwhile, a pair of traveling circus performers passes by Tonio’s farm, christening his younger brother Pacu and planting a seed of enchantment and exploration. For both brothers, the performers represent a broadened horizon, a life of fun and romance that exists beyond their normal environs. Tempted to escape the confines of their humdrum world, Tonio and Pacu venture secretly to a nearby town under cover of night to take in the spectacle of the traveling circus. They perceive a refreshing spontaneity and individuality in their new friends’ behavior, even though Clara - the lovely, talented, but tormented female performer - is struggling to escape the confines of her own oppressive realm.

In light of their parents’ austerity, Tonio and Pacu’s clandestine trip to the circus is not only rebellious; it is emancipatory. Even as his father beats him, Tonio sees the world differently now, challenging his father’s worldview. In The Gay Science, Nietzsche states, "Hostility against [the] impulse to have an ideal of one’s own was formerly the central law of all morality." (191) The next morning, Tonio watches the oxen incessantly encircling the molasses mill. They go around and around and never go anywhere. They lack individual will and suffer from intense hardship at the hands of their owner. For Tonio, the oxen are symbols of his own lack of individual freedom and dignity at the hands of his oppressive father. As Tonio identifies his condition with that of the oxen, he begins to question more fundamentally his father’s moral code, which constrains his freedom and self-realization. It is at this point that the protagonist begins to envision his own liberation as Nietzsche has defined it. Tonio begins to "posit his own ideal," to discover what he wants in life, and to develop his own set of values and principles that guide him there.

Tonio’s newfound sense of direction takes him on a second journey to town to see the traveling circus. He joins Clara and Salustiana on their circuit of neighboring communities, assisting behind-the-scenes as the performing duo entertains local townspeople with fire-eating and other circus tricks. Tonio and Clara enjoy a poignant moment together as Clara mounts the suspended rope at a town carnival. Tonio twirls her endlessly, as if winding a machine that will transport them away from their troubles. But the diversion, while astonishingly romantic for them both, is short-lived as Salustiana crudely exerts control over his goddaughter Clara. The very unpleasant sexual dynamic between them exacerbates the tension. Tonio and Clara both realize the limits of fantasy as a form of liberation so long as an oppressive figure continues to maintain authority.

As abruptly as he had left home, Tonio returns to his family after experiencing a keen sense of obligation to play his role within the age-old practice of vendetta between the two families. After all, he remains a marked man, as he still wears the armband that connotes his status. Upholding family honor has, for the moment, quelled any incipient yearning for freedom. Yet Tonio has clearly grown from the experience of having asserted himself to leave the farm and to assume control of his destiny. When Clara visits him in the middle of a violent storm, Tonio seizes the opportunity to consummate his love for her. In many ways, this form of liberation is much more authentic than the glimmers of freedom that he had experienced previously. Using Nietzsche’s notion of freedom, we could say: love is its own ideal, and its own law can be derived from it. Tonio experiences this love as a radical form of self-expression, of privileging the individual over the collective. During his intimate moment with Clara in the barn, his armband is removed – richly symbolic of his rejection of the traditional values that threaten his life.

Love thrives not only between Tonio and Clara, but also between Pacu and Tonio. Indeed, both sets of devotion figure in the film’s moving climax. After Tonio and Clara have made love to one another, she quietly absconds to begin her journey toward the sea. Pacu, mindful that his brother’s would-be assailants are within striking distance, soon dons Tonio’s signature hat and begins walking along Clara’s route out of town. Acting as a decoy, Pacu gives his own life to protect the older brother he so profoundly admires. In doing so, Pacu has disrupted the normal sequence of death prescribed by the vendetta system. His independent action is an implicit rejection of his parents’ traditional morality, in much the same spirit as his brother Tonio’s emancipatory trip to the sea in the film’s final scene.

In concluding, it is worth exploring a logical extension of this discussion on freedom and competing moralities: How is one to conceive of Nietzsche’s prescription for freedom - to create one’s own system of values and ideals – in the context of the political realm? In his famous essay "Politics as a Vocation", German sociologist Max Weber posits a clear distinction between science and politics. For Weber, science is the realm of principle, whereas politics is the realm of responsibility. Nietzsche, however, turns this dichotomy on its head. What he terms "the gay science" is the rigorous but joyful process of crafting one’s own principles – a sort of personal politics or radical political action. Nietzsche fundamentally mistrusted institutions that enforce conformity of thought and behavior. Akin to Nietzsche in this respect, Italian political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli saw no place for Christian morality and divinity in political life. In politics, humans behave within an ethic of responsibility that is governed by good outcomes, not good intentions. "Behind the Sun", like so much of Nietzsche’s writings, operates without much regard for formal political institutions. As such, their moral prescriptions for the realm of collective politics are much less clear.