This film is based on the same name book of the Portuguese writer Ferreira de Castro. Because his monarchical ideas, the writer was forced, at the beginning of the 20th century, to emigrate to the Amazon forest, an unforgettable ind inhospitable place. The film biopic represent this phase of their incredible life. I love this Portuguese film.

Adapted from a Novel by Ferreira de Castro (a Portuguese writer from the XX century) A SELVA is nice co-production between Portugal, Brazil and Spain, directed by Leonel Vieira. I didn't read the book so I can't tell about the novel itself or its adaptation to the screen, but I can tell you I did enjoy the movie and the way it was directed and produced. The cinematography is also good. I think it's visually very strong and beautiful. And about the production I must say it's above the average Portuguese movie! Probably because it's an international co-production and probably because it had more money than the Portuguese movies use to have, but a nice job was done anyway. The acting is very nice too. It was interesting to see actors from three different nationalities work together so well. The soundtrack has the typical music of an epic story but it's a bit unoriginal and repetitive. Overall I think A SELVA is one of the best movies in Leonel Vieira's career and undoubtedly one of the best (co-) productions of the Portuguese cinema ever. I score it 8/10 (one extra point for the nice production).

This movie is inspired in the novel by the Portuguese writer Ferreira de Castro which was a best-seller in 1930 and was translated in several languages. In 1912 a Portuguese young man comes to Brazil running away from the Republic which had been proclaimed in Portugal in 1910, since he was a monarchist. He is educated (can even play the piano) but he gets only a job as "seringueiro" (rubber-gatherer) in a remote place in the Amazonian jungle which is almost like hell. The law there is the will of the white owners of the ground where the rubber trees grow and their foremen which can punish the workers (mostly Negroes or half-caste) by whipping or even killing them by such faults as not producing enough work or trying to escape, in a system akin to slavery. The workers while working in the forest are also subject to attacks by savage Indians tribesmen and wild animals such as ounces and jaguars. After a certain time the young man gets some kind of "promotion" and comes to work in the store and the office of the rubber estate where he gets better treatment and is even admitted at the table of the owner. There he falls in love with the beautiful book-keeper's wife which will bring him a lot of trouble in that kind of milieu. The movie is very well made and shows in a very realistic way the daily life in an Amazonian rubber estate. It's served by an excellent cast of performers including those who do the roles of the semi-slave workers. Its only flaw in my opinion is its inconclusive end after the final very violent scenes of the climax. But a good movie in any case.

I've seen A Selva. It's a Portuguese/Spanish/Brazilian production, with a Portuguese director. Good actors from Brazilian ranking, such as Maitê Proença, Claudio Marzo, Roberto Bonfim, Gracindo Júnior, Chico Díaz, José Dumont, and others, all highlighted by former careers on TV and in the movies. But their talents are spoiled, as if we could say they (the talents) were "pearls given to the pigs". The film is too schematic, too academic, too "square", like all TV Globo "videonovel" productions. The magnificent scenery is worthy to see. But the performances are all too much "correct",with no heart-giving, no delivery to the characters. The Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado (is he a relative to "our" excellent Brazilian actress Camila Morgado? if so, he has some things to learn with her...) works on a schematic line, without "incorporating" his dubious and ambiguous character, a monarchist dandy who exiles himself in the Rain Forest, running from Portugal after a revolution won by the republican branch of political society. There are much better things going on on movie screens countrywide. If you doubt me, go and see it. But don't complain I didn't warn you!