Mestiçagem and Purity of Blood in Alain Fresnot’s Desmundo

Abstract

This article analyses how the themes of mestiçagem and purity of blood are developed in Alain Fresnot’s filmic adaptation of Desmundo, based on the novel by Ana Miranda. It begins by contextualising the critical dialogue that the film establishes with the discourses on national identity circulating in the early 2000s in response to state-sponsored efforts to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Brazil’s “discovery,” and specifically with the resurgence of theories on mestiçagem associated with Gilberto Freyre. It further offers a filmic analysis highlighting two key points. First, it considers how the question of racial mixture is framed and developed by calling attention to the historical case of as órfãs d’el Rei, which was an imperial marriage scheme designed to help reproduce a white Christian population in Portugal’s overseas colonial possessions. Secondly, it provides an analysis of the film’s representation of Ximeno’s character as an ambiguous New Christian of Jewish descent. It argues that the emphasis on the question of purity of blood informs the film’s critical drive to reorient national discussions on mestiçagem and racialisation in Brazil.