João Moreira Salles, 2007.
In 1992, filmmaker João Moreira Salles began making a film about Santiago, the family butler who worked for Salles’s parents since his childhood. Years later, after the death of the flamboyant servant, Salles returns to the unused footage and crafts a moving portrait of an enigmatic man who, aside from running the household, is a talented pianist, a poet and an amateur historian interested in the lives of aristocrats. The film is an evocative reflection on the components of a person's identity and those traits that make us memorable to others. Through his personal voice-over, Salles sheds light on his family and childhood as well as universal topics such as memory, identity, and documentary filmmaking.
In 1992, filmmaker João Moreira Salles began making a film about Santiago, the family butler who worked for Salles’s parents since his childhood. Years later, after the death of the flamboyant servant, Salles returns to the unused footage and crafts a moving portrait of an enigmatic man who, aside from running the household, is a talented pianist, a poet and an amateur historian interested in the lives of aristocrats. The film is an evocative reflection on the components of a person's identity and those traits that make us memorable to others. Through his personal voice-over, Salles sheds light on his family and childhood as well as universal topics such as memory, identity, and documentary filmmaking.